CM quiet on Mamata ‘nexus’ with Maoists

March 12: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today attacked the Maoists at a rally in Murshidabad but refrained from speaking about the alleged nexus between the Trinamool Congress and the Naxalites, an accusation he has made several times.

“We know that the Trinamool Congress believes in violence, killings and retaliation,” the chief minister told the rally at Raghunathganj near Jangipur, but stopped short of accusing Mamata Banerjee’s party of colluding with the Maoists.

A CPI(M) source said Bhattacharjee had changed his mind after Union home minister P. Chidambaram told a news conference in Kolkata that “as far as I am concerned, nobody is colluding with the Maoists. No political party can collude with the Maoists.”

In the Assembly, Bhattacharjee had time and again accused the Trinamool Congress of having links with the Naxalites, prompting the Opposition to stage walk-outs.

At today’s meet, the chief minister threatened to go to any length to deal with the Maoists. “The Maoists are dragging people out of their homes and killing them on the roads. They are also killing policemen and our political activists. This cannot go on. I will see how far these cowards can carry on their mayhem,” he warned.

He said the Naxalbari movement in Bengal had failed to gain ground because “the poor people do not back those who indulge in violence and killings”.

Bhattacharjee’s sudden shift today caught Left Front leaders by surprise. “I don’t know what prompted the chief minister to refrain from accusing Trinamool of having links with the Maoists. But I do believe that there was no proof behind his allegation,” RSP leader and PWD minister Kshiti Goswami said in Kolkata.

The chief minister’s rally was organised in the run-up to the elections to the Jangipur municipality in May-June.


The Telegraph