Kolkata, July 13 (IANS) Veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, who was admitted to hospital after he fell unconscious Sunday, is stable. He underwent a brain scan Monday which showed that a clot from a fall last year was healing, doctors said.
The 96-year-old leader was making satisfactory progress in a cabin at the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit of the AMRI private hospital. “The brain scan report is good. It shows the old clot in his brain has become smaller,” hospital medical superintendent Debasish Sharma told IANS.

A seven-member medical board — comprising specialists in cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, surgery and geriatrics — examined Basu Monday morning. He had been rushed to the hospital near his Salt Lake home ‘Indira Bhavan’ on Sunday.

Basu, who was chief minister for a record 23 years, has a clot in the brain from a fall at his home in September last year. The doctors had advised surgery but he did not opt for it.

“The board is satisfied with Basu’s progress. Overall, his condition is stable. All parameters are okay,” Sharma said.

Basu slept well Sunday night and continued to be on a liquid diet. His condition was being monitored round-the-clock, he said.

“He is suffering from ‘gastro-intestinal distension’ and also had a transient loss of consciousness Sunday morning. His blood pressure was also fluctuating earlier, but now it is normal,” Sharma had said Sunday.

A series of tests, including ECG, ultrasound, colonoscopy, x-ray and blood examination, has been conducted on the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader.

The nonagenarian leader injured his left leg after another fall at his home May 13. This prevented him from casting his vote in the Lok Sabha polls two months back - the first time in 63 years that he did not vote.

In 2007, after a fall in the bathroom, one of his ribs had cracked.

Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee called on Basu at the hospital. She told reporters later that he was better. “He was awake when I entered his cabin. He gestured to me that he was well. He is stable.”

Born 1914 in Kolkata, Basu became chief minister in 1977. He stepped down voluntarily on health grounds in November 2000.

One of the founding members of the CPI-M, Basu almost became India’s prime minister in 1996 as the head of the United Front government. But the CPI-M vetoed the proposal, forcing him to dub the party’s decision as a “historical blunder”.