The incident has been widely condemned in the college community.

On Sunday, the students' wing of Trinamool Congress will observe its foundation day with a rally in Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee is always the main speaker at the rally. This time, there are concerns she may have a tough message for the students.

Because just today, Ms Banerjee called a college professor in Hooghly district and expressed regret that members of the Trinamool Chatra Parishad or TMCP had beaten him up on campus on Wednesday after he intervened when girl students refused to shout a slogan that TMCP supporters wanted them to.

The slogan: Mamata Banerjee Zindabad.

The two students who were seen in news footage thrashing the professor were arrested and the Hooghly district chief of the Trinamool Congress was sent to the Nabagram Hiralal Paul College today to personally apologise to the professor.

Professor Subrata Chatterjee, who teaches Bengali at college, said the girl students who were doing their PhDs had an altercation with some undergraduate students who are TMCP activists. The girl students were locked up. Teachers intervened and the decision was both sides should apologise to each other.

That's when a fresh row erupted. The TMCP activists demanded the girl students shout "Mamata Banerjee Zindabad". The girls refused. The TMCP activists attacked Mr Chatterjee for supporting the girls.

The incident has been widely condemned in the college community. The TMCP also promised to look into the matter. After the arrests and the chief minister's phone call to the professor, TMCP is edgy about what Mamata Banerjee may say to them on Sunday.