Kolkata/IBNS/UNI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday visited the Woodlands Hospital in the city to see the ailing Marxist leader and her predecessor Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who is undergoing treatment for his respiratory tract infections.

Seventy-nine-year-old Bhattacharya, who was on full ventilator support for the past 24 hours, was now kept on non-invasive ventilation and is doing well, the medics treating the former CM said in the presence of Banerjee.

"Yes I think he waved his hand at me and was fully conscious," the Chief Minister told the media persons after visiting the former polit-bureau member of CPI(M).

The septuagenarian Marxist was admitted to the Woodlands hospital on Saturday afternoon with lower respiratory tract infection and Type II respiratory failure following persistent fever at his Palm Avenue home in south Kolkata.

"We have done some routine blood tests and a CT scan of his chest this morning, " Dr Patra told reporters earlier in the day.

A nine-member medical board was set up at the multispeciality hospital to look after the ailing CPI(M) leader, who has chronic breathing trouble.

The medic said the patient was in stable condition and had no fever.