A condolence resolution read out at the rally claimed that uncountable number of left workers and supporters had been murdered by 'anti-socials backed by' opposition parties like the Congress and Trinamool and the left radical Maoists.

'Everyday, our workers are being attacked and killed. Efforts are on to create lawlessness in the state and bring back the landlord classes into power. Through violence, reactionary forces are trying to break poor people's unity,' said the resolution.

However, it expressed confidence that the onward march of the leftists could not be stopped by violent attacks on them.

Bose claimed nearly 600,000 people had assembled at the rally held in the heart of the city -- the Metro Channel.

The Left Front leaders also paid homage to those who fell to police firing during the 'Food Movement' which was launched in 1959 when the state was suffering from acute food shortage.

The movement reached its peak on Aug 31, 1959, when large number of processions converged into a huge rally in the central part of the city leading to a severe police baton charge.

The leftists have claimed that 80 persons had died in police atrocities on that day, but other political parties dispute the figure.

The Food Movement was one of the many agitations organised by the leftists through the 1950s and 1960s to mobilise the masses leading to the installation of two United Front governments in 1967 and 1969 and finally the uninterrupted rule of the Left Front since 1977.