Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) Veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Jyoti Basu is stable and doctors have started physiotherapy as his health condition improved Tuesday, said a medical bulletin here Tuesday.
The nonagenarian was hospitalised last week after a pneumonia attack and was admitted to the ICCU (Intensive Cardiac Care Unit) of a Salt Lake-based private hospital.

“Basu is presently on a liquid diet and his blood pressure is normal. The doctors have started physiotherapy on him in the hospital. He will be kept in the ICCU for another day,” said the medical bulletin released by hospital authorities.

It pointed out intravenous anti-biotics were also being continued.

Basu was admitted to the hospital in Salt Lake close to his Indira Bhawan residence Friday evening following chest congestion and infection. Later, a CT scan report revealed that he was suffering from pneumonia.

Basu also has a clot in the brain from a fall in his bathroom in 2008. However, it has now reduced following medication.

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

One of the founding leaders of the CPI-M, Basu almost became India’s prime minister in 1996 at the head of a coalition government but the party vetoed the proposal.