This comes a day after CM Banerjee offered “all possible government support” if the family wanted to keep the body at the state’s iconic cultural centres Rabindra Sadan and Nanda — reportedly the Communist leader’s favourite places to frequent.

According to CPI(M) sources, Buddhadeb’s wife Mira Bhattacharya and son Suchetan have asked for the leader’s body to be taken to the state assembly without any such government arrangements. Bhattacharjee, who died Thursday, was chief minister for 10 years from 2001 to 2011.

“Buddha da always believed in a simple life. Till the last day of his life, he lived in a two-roomed flat. He never believed in pomp and show. Then why should his last journey be with a gun salute? This culture has been brought by the present administration. We never believed in that,” CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim said.

According to senior another CPI(M), Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “always tried to suppress the credits of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and tried to humiliate him when he was in power, scathingly attacking him” and accepting her offer, therefore, would be “humiliating” for Bhattacharya and “thousands of party workers. “We can’t accept any proposals from her,” this leader said.

“The place is large and many people eager to pay tribute to their leader will be able to do so,” she said, adding that the government “would also arrange a gun salute”. She had also reportedly assigned two ministers – Arup Biswas and Firhad Hakim – to oversee the arrangements.

It was under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s tenure when the state government acquired 997 acres of land at Singur in 2008, sparking an anti-establishment movement spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee. The movement eventually spread to Nandigram and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress dislodged the Left government in 2011 after over three decades of being in power.

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