the police arrested 35 prominent leaders of the committee including 7 members of legislative assembly through the usage of the Preventive Detention Act and the West Bengal Security Act. The movement however continued with civil disobedience, continuous general strikes and mass demonstrations while Basu was also able to evade arrest. On 31 August 1959, a massive demonstration cum general strike was held in the city of Calcutta which brought the city and its surrounding districts to a standstill and ended with lathi charges and instances of police violence on protesters. This caused an outburst of students protests against police atrocities and led to instances of police firing on student protesters. Over the course of the following days between 2–5 September, civil unrest with large scale participation from students of schools, colleges and universities erupted across the city accompanied by violent encounters with the police, vandalism and mass shootings by the police; in the end around 46–80 civilians were killed. The opposition leaders including Basu accused the government of having turned "authoritarian and ruthless" and reasoned that there was no space for the continuation of a democratic mass movement. In light of the violence, the PIFRC formally withdrew the agitation by 26 September and the committee was disbanded. In the aftermath and over the course of the following years, Basu condemned the "police barbarism" against the agitators, engaging in fiery criticisms against the government and even brought a motion of no confidence, although it was defeated due to a lack of requisite members. The series of events had also heightened public resentment against the Congress government across West Bengal, especially in Calcutta and would set the foundation for latter political activism in the following decade. The food movement would also go on in the form of a number of localised spontaneous agitations over the following years till the next large scale flare up in 1966. Communist Party of India (Marxist) (1964 afterwards) Split from the Communist Party of India (1962–1966) In the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election of 1962, Basu was once again re-elected as the representative of the Baranagar constituency and the Communist Party increased its vote share from 17.81% to 24.96%. In the following period the Communist Party underwent a vertical split with a section of the party including Basu going on to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist). There were several ongoing ideological conflicts between sections within