The Army as well as the Air Force have been requested to help put in the relief work in which Left Front workers have put in their all with great sincerity. The chief minister Jyoti Basu has called an emergency meeting of all parties at which measures to tackle the emergency are to be discussed threadbare.

The state finance minister Asim Dasgupta made an aerial survey of Howrah, Hooghly, Bardhaman and Murshidabad districts even as the weather gods are believed to be frowning on North Bengal areas of Malda and Darjeeling. The rains are continuing and one death was reported as late as on Sunday from Kandi area in Murshidabad. A total of 400 houses have been swept away in Birbhum. A party worker Rabindranath Bairagya died of a heart attack caused by fatigue even while he was trying to ferry marooned people to safety in Mangalkot.

The CPI (M) state secretary, Anil Biswas, in a statement issued shortly after the deluge on Friday, has appealed to all parties to forsake politics in the face of the calamity. The CPI (M) has decided to cancel all election meetings till Monday to engage all workers in relief work. The chief electoral officer of the state Jahar Sarkar has said that while all possibilities were being looked into regarding relocation of polling booths in submerged areas, there was no reason as of now to postpone polling on Sunday. The chief minister Jyoti Basu's meetings have been canceled till Monday evening.

Reports have been coming in from various districts about obstructions being faced by Left Front in relief work and attacks by Trinamool Congress workers who are out to disrupt peaceful relief work. All election offices of the Front have been converted into relief centres for the round-the-clock help and workers are relentlessly moving out to all areas to bring succor to the needy.

However, the Trinamool Congress is out to make petty politics out of a tragedy and its workers are resisting relief work in Hooghly district saying that CPI (M) sympathisers were getting more largesse than others; a naked untruth. Batches of CPI (M) volunteers are on a round-the-clock vigil beside key dam installations to ensure that sudden bursts do not sweep away villages in the districts. The Trinamool attitude is best exemplified by an incident in which a party panchayat pradhan has been arrested alongwith her family members in Hooghly district while trying to ferry away food and stocks meant for relief.