The condition of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee deteriorated on Thursday, the 25th day of her hunger strike, as the party leadership formed a medical team for her treatment.
"Her blood pressure has fallen. She is complaining of muscle cramps and also pain in the chest and the abdomen. But she is refusing to take oral fluids with medicine and food supplement. She has been given respiratory support," Sudershan Ghosh Dastidar, who is leading the seven-member medical team told newsmen.
Meanwhile, following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's directive on Wednesday to the Central authorities to extend medical help to Banerjee, the army's Eastern Command has kept a medical team on standby at the Command Hospital.
"We have kept a comprehensive medical team on standby. There are eight members in the team," army sources said.
The team, however, would intervene only if asked to do so by the civilian doctors attending on the Trinamool chief, they said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, now in North Bengal, appealed once again on Thursday to Banerjee to end her fast. He, however, made it clear that the Tata Motors project in Singur would go ahead.
