Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TC) took another step back from a confrontation by opening up the Kolkata-bound lane of National Highway 2 from dawn today, allowing many trailer-trucks, cars and other vehicles to proceed to Kolkata.
However, growing crowds led to a fresh shutdown of NH2 after noon as TC was scheduled to hold a massive rally of small retailers and shopkeepers to protest the entry of multinational retailers into the domestic retail sector.
This was a very sensitive topic in Bengal, where repeated protests had been held against this over the last year or so.
The Left Front shut down Kolkata from afternoon today as well, when lakhs of Left party workers gathered at Park Circus in central Kolkata to march 7 km to a northern part of the city to protest against imperialism.