By IANS
Kolkata : Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee would attend the much-awaited all-party meeting here Thursday to restore peace in trouble-torn Nandigram in West Bengal while Left Front chairman Biman Bose is unlikely likely to attend it.
A Left party outside the Left Front – Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) – boycotted the meeting while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was not called to attend the meeting for not having any member in the state assembly, said it would protest outside the venue – Mahajati Sadan.
Bose, the chairman of the state secretary of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) would not attend the meeting (predictably) even as Banerjee assured her presence in the talks, Left Front leader and Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh said Wednesday.
CPI-M would be represented by senior party leaders Shymal Chakraborty and Madan Ghosh, according to sources. Three senior Congress leaders are likely to participate.
Ashok Ghosh had said Tuesday that all political parties with representation in the state assembly were invited to participate in Thursday's meeting to restore peace in Nandigram in East Midnapore distict, about 150 km from here.
However, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, one of the key groups in Nandigram protests, was left out too though Jamiat is not a political party.
"I had a talk with Trinamool chief and she said she would come with all her allies to the meeting. But she has not mentioned anything about the representation of the BJP in the meeting," Ashok Ghosh had said.
Communist patriarch and CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu would not attend the meeting for health reasons.
Ashok Ghosh said he had requested Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya to facilitate the peace meeting but he (Bhattacharya) said he was already doing everything needed to be done on his behalf.
BJP state secretary Rahul Sinha said the basis of assembly representation was not a healthy sign if the leaders were indeed looking for an open-minded discussion.
Ashok Ghosh has been taking a leading position in initiating peace talks to end the crisis in Nandigram, where at least 21 people have died since a flare-up in January over a special economic zone (SEZ) project.
Meanwhile, reports from Nandigram said violence continued even Wednesday in adjoining Khejuri area.
In January, six people were killed in clashes between CPI-M activists and the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), a platform of opposition parties and bodies like the Trinamool Congress, Congress and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.
Thousands of people were rendered homeless since the flare-up and they were living in camps.
Shootouts, bombings and arson between rival groups continued in Nandigram over battle for taking control of villages claiming one life on April 29.
Â