The organization put forward August 20, 1959 as the date to initiate mass resistance to force the state government either to accept these demands or to resign.
[2] The movement reached its peak as a general strike was organised in Calcutta and surrounding districts in August–September 1959.
Prominent communist leaders, like Jyoti Basu and Hare Krishna Konar, had gone underground to escape arrest.
[1] Marcus Franda claims that the 1959 food movement affected the internal debates with the CPI in West Bengal.
The thesis that the food movement was divisive to the party was also put forward by The Statesman at the time.