The end of the doctors' protest, which began shortly after the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, has brought some relief to the ruling Trinamool ahead of the November 13 bypolls to six Assembly seats.
Junior doctors called off their 17-day hunger strike and shutdown of healthcare services, starting Tuesday, after a two-hour meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday in which she responded to many of their 10-point charter of demands.
"Keeping any issue alive for too long is a potential threat to any government or ruling party.... The truce between the medical fraternity and the state government is a relief, at least for now," said a senior TMC leader in Calcutta.
"If the meeting's outcome had been negative, the government would have faced the challenge of managing a complete collapse of healthcare services. That would have created a fresh crisis for government hospitals and handed an opportunity to the Opposition to corner the ruling party," he added.
However, although the hunger strike and the threat to paralyse healthcare services have been withdrawn, the RG Kar incident continues to spell major trouble for the TMC regime.
Multiple Trinamool leaders admitted that no other anti-government issue before RG Kar had lasted this long, turning it into a headache for the state government and Mamata, who repeatedly urged the doctors to return to work and end their protest.
An anxious chief minister had gone to meet protesting doctors in front of Swasthya Bhavan in Salt Lake on September 14 and held a prolonged meeting with representatives of the protesters the next day, but these failed to convince the medics.
A TMC leader said that Mamata, who had spearheaded multiple movements including the Nandigram and Singur protests against the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government, was keen to end the hunger strike, realising the adverse impact of any prolonged anti-government movement.
"The sight of doctors on a hunger strike in the heart of Calcutta did not send a good message to people of the state. The main challenge for the government was to get them off the streets and back to work, which has been achieved," he said.
The reaction of BJP leaders to the development underscored the relief in the Trinamool camp.
BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, when asked to comment on the junior doctors' decision to end their protest, appeared visibly uncomfortable.
"Ask for a reaction from those (junior doctors) who initiated the protest with their demands," Adhikari briefly said, when told that the protest had lifted even though the health secretary had not removed, which was on the list of the demands.
However, several TMC leaders showed caution.
"It is too early to say anything... the doctors have called for a mass convention on Saturday. The movement can take a new shape. The Opposition won't let the issue fade so easily," said an insider.
Samik Bhattacharya, the BJP's Rajya Sabha member, said public anger against the TMC would persist.
"Public anger across the state against TMC will not dissipate just because the doctors have ended their protest. The people of Bengal have completely lost faith in this state government," he said.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty also said that while the fast had ended, the movement had not.
"Trinamool should not feel relieved as the junior doctors have vowed to continue their protest until justice is served," he said.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said the Opposition was unhappy over the protest ending as it was trying to misuse the doctors' protest to do politics against the ruling party.
"Mamata Banerjee's approach towards the sentiment of doctors and their movement was that of a guardian. We were against those who tried to misuse the protest stage for political purposes, which was evident from their reaction when doctors called off their fast and joined work," he said.
