"We are against the bandh.... The administration will work to maintain peace in the state. If someone wants to go to office and faces trouble, the administration will help them," Mukherjee, also a state Panchayat minister, told reporters.
In reference to CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra's remark that Wednesday's bandh would "create a new history", Mukherjee said, "They have already created history by goondaism during their 34-year-rule in the state. Now they are again trying to take up goondaism to create another history but that will not help them in anyway."
Mukherjee said the Left parties were "actually trying to derail state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's development works" through this bandh.
When pointed out that it was he who used to support bandhs in the past, Mukherjee said, "Yes we had called bandhs in the past but we have realised that bandh is not for common man. And realising that, long before coming into power, we have stopped calling bandhs. And this is our respect towards common man's wish."