West Bengal's Left Front government is sitting on a powder keg even as Mamata Banerjee walks around with a lighted match. In a year in which the Lok Sabha elections are due and a hobbling economy has spread widespread anxiety in the cities, the quasi-ban on Kolkata's polluting auto rickshaws is like the last straw for the state government.

Tata Motor's plant for the Nano car has been stalled as the CPI(M) and the Trinamul Congress battle it out