Kolkata, Apr 19 (IANS): Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Surya Kanta Mishra Wednesday likened the rule of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the "semi fascist regime" in the state in the 1970s.

"There are similarities in the activities of the state government's regime and the semi fascist regime in the state during the seventies. It is in the same way that attack is being perpetuated on the democratic set up of the state," said Mishra, who is also a politburo member of the CPI-M.

Mishra's comment comes in the backdrop of the arrest of a Jadavpur University professor for circulating cartoons targeting Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress leaders.

The state administration has also received flak from all quarters including from intellectuals - who had once supported Banerjee in her fight against the Left Front - over the arrest of a scientist for supporting the cause of slum dwellers in East Kolkata's Nonadanga.