The Publishers and Booksellers' Guild, which was hell bent on holding the fair at the Maidan, today budged and said that in the interest of medium and small publishers, they are ready to hold the fair elsewhere.

Yesterday, the Guild had declared that they were not going to organise the fair this year.

Minister for Sports and Transport Subhas Chakraborty met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers' Building and discussed the matter in details. He, however, did not divulge the details of his talks with the chief minister. "I will tell you everything tomorrow," Chakraborty said while leaving Writers' Building.

Earlier in the morning, representatives of some publishers and Guild officials met Chakraborty at his residence at Salt Lake.

"He is trying that the fair is held this year. We are still fighting to regain the Maidan. In the interest of small and medium publishers, we are ready to chip in with any organisation who wants to organise the fair," Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the Guild, told The Indian Express.

The Guild has sought legal opinion on how to regain the Maidan.

"We may have to move the apex court for redressal. We have sought legal opinion in this regard. Nobody should be allowed to play ducks and drakes with the book fair," he added.

The Publishers' Association, which today gave a separate letter to Chakraborty, took out a rally in the College Street area demanding that the fair be held this year. "Our stand remains the same. Maidan or no Maidan, the fair must be held," Joydev Ghosh, president of the Publishers' Association, told The Indian Express.