By IANS,
Kolkata : West Bengal’s principal opposition party Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee “is a bigger Maoist” and threatened a stir if allegations that her party had links with leftwing rebels were not withdrawn.
“We will wait for 48 hours. If nothing happens within that time, then we will hit the streets,” Banerjee told mediapersons at her Kalighat residence.
“We don’t support Maoists. If you search the chief minister’s house, you will get Maoist literature. He is a bigger Maoist,” the Trinamool chief said.
Banerjee also demanded Bhattacharjee’s resignation for the atrocities committed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres in various parts of the state.
“This chief minister should be sacked. He is wholly responsible for all the atrocities. He is the lead actor of all the atrocities across Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, Mangalkot and Keshpur,” Banerjee said.
The railway minister also questioned why the state government took so much time to crack down on the Maoists.
“Why didn’t you ban the Maoists in the state, when it is banned in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh?” she asked pointedly.
“I am condemning the atrocities, whoever is doing this. But who created the Maoists? Who has carried out atrocities against common people in the name of Maoists? The people who are arrested in Lalgarh are not Maoists,” she thundered, denying her party’s links with the rebels.
She alleged the CPI-M was trying to establish its sway in Lalgarh in the name of the operation. Neither the central nor the state government had apprised her party about the ongoing operation beforehand, she added.
“They didn’t tell us anything about the operation that is going on for three days. We have not been informed by the state or the central government. Law and order is a state subject. It is their joint operation. I don’t want to talk on this.”
Asked about the Maoist leader Kishanji’s comment that they participated in the Singur and Nandigram along with Trinamool, Banerjee said: “There were no Maoists during the Singur and Nandigram fights. I don’t know any Kishanji. It is a drama created by the CPI-M. They are very good at creating new drama.”