By IANS
New Delhi : A day after Sonia Gandhi took the Marxists to task publicly over Nandigram, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee met the Congress leader and urged her to visit the troubled region in West Bengal.
The first formal meeting between Banerjee and Gandhi in six years, at the latter’s 10 Janpath residence here, is widely seen as an indication of possible realignments in Left-ruled West Bengal.
There was no word from the Congress about the 15-minute meeting. But Banerjee told reporters that she asked Gandhi to forget political compulsions and make a trip to Nandigram, a rural area that is turning to be a political graveyard for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
A group backed by Banerjee has been in the forefront of a dragging campaign against the West Bengal government’s plan to acquire farmland for industry in Nandigram, leading to violent clashes that have claimed over 35 lives since January.
According to Banerjee, the Congress president expressed her concern and worry over the developments in Nandigram.
“I requested her to send a UPA (United Progressive Alliance) team to Nandigram. I can understand her political compulsions, but this is a matter of human rights,” she said.
The Banerjee-Gandhi meeting comes amid growing fissures in the relationship between the Congress and the CPI-M over the India-US nuclear deal that the Left bitterly opposes.
On Thursday, Gandhi broke her silence on the Marxist role in Nandigram saying: “The cult of violence and the manner in which armed party cadres prevented the law and order machinery from fulfilling its obligations to the people are most unfortunate.”
The reference was to last month’s assault on Nandigram by CPI-M supporters who drove away Banerjee supporters and others from the region.
The showdown claimed more lives – remains of some bodies have been recently unearthed – and forced thousands to flee. The development turned even many Left sympathisers against the Marxists.
Since then, there have been indications that the Trinamul Congress and the Congress are trying to make up in West Bengal, which the Marxists have ruled for three long decades, thanks in part to a divided opposition.
The Nandigram violence has forced the CPI-M to withdraw its proposal to set up a special economic zone in the area. But that did not bring peace to the area.
The CPI-M and other Left parties provide crucial parliamentary backing to the Congress-led UPA government. Their relations almost fell apart over the India-US nuclear deal two months ago.
Banerjee said she had also urged the central government to send more paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel to Nandigram to boost the confidence of the people in the area.