The condition of Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee, who ended her 25 days' hunger strike at midnight on Thursday, was stable even though she was still under oxygen support at a South Kolkata nursing home on Friday.
"Her condition is stable. She has mild chest pain. But there is nothing to worry about her overall condition. She is still on oxygen support with saline drips going on," Dr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, one of the physicians attending on her, said.
Dr Ghosh Dastidar said Miss Banerjee would have to be in the ICCU under medical care for a few more days.
After a prolonged fast Mamta's condition started deteriorating from the 22nd day as her blood pressure went down, reportedly to an alarming level, pulse rate hovered between 46 and 58 and she kept lying at the dharna manch for the last three days of her hunger strike which she started on December 4 in protest against acquisition of farmlands at Singur for Tata Motors' small car project.
On Thursday she suffered muscle cramp for what her party colleagues said dehydration.
Mamta had repeatedly refused medical assistance from a team of doctors sent by the West Bengal Government earlier saying she had no faith in the administration. Two of her party colleagues, who themselves are medical practitioners, were looking after the leader's health before her family physician took over.
But after having gone ahead with the demand for scrapping the car project where land had already been acquired, Mamta refused to give in without a gain as she climbed down to a call for returning to the farmers 406 acres out of total 960 acres of Singur land acquired so far by the government which, she alleged, had been forcibly taken away.
Though Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asserted that no plot had been acquired without consent and invited Mamta for talks to ascertain facts, she insisted that the government first fulfill her demand before any dialogue begins.
Both sides remained unmoved. Though requesting didi a number of times to call off the hunger strike and join negotiation, the chief minister said in clear terms that the Tata project would come up at Singur and nowhere else.
With Mamta becoming a prisoner of her own words, repeated appeals by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former prime minister V P Singh, and Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi fell flat on her.
As her health deteriorated fast, anxious party colleagues were eager to find a way out to avoid a possible tragedy by evolving a solution for glorious retreat of their party supremo. They had been holding unofficial talks with the state government, which was also in touch with the Centre, equally willing to break the deadlock.
After the chief minister talked to him seeking help to end the impasse, the prime minister directed the eastern naval command keep vigil on Mamta's condition and keep ready a team of doctors.
Meanwhile, leaders of the National Democratic Alliance of which the All India Trinamul Congress is a partner, met President A P J Abdul Kalam at the Rashtrapati Bhawan seeking his intervention.
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