Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee will be provided the necessary security arrangements as required for a Central Minister, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Sunday.
Mr. Mukherjee was responding to journalists seeking his reaction to Ms. Banerjee's remarks here on Saturday that a section of her political opponents, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was planning to “eliminate” her before the Assembly polls due in 2011.
“I have seen the report in newspapers. The necessary security arrangements will definitely be made,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
Dismissing Ms. Banerjee's allegations, Biman Bose, secretary of the CPI(M)'s State Committee, said in Howrah: “People should be on the alert. Whenever the Trinamool Congress leader makes such utterances we should understand that the party has other plans, including conspiring to kill Left Front leaders, and is diverting attention the other way.”
‘Many conspiracies'
Ms. Banerjee reiterated during the day that “many types of conspiracies” were being hatched against those opposed to the CPI(M)-led Left Front government.
“I am collecting the relevant information,” she said. “They [CPI(M)] are now desperate as their days in power are coming to an end. They will never return to power. The people will never forgive them.”
She added: “There is a need for the people to be on the guard against the gangs of armed CPI(M) cadres. We as responsible citizens need to caution the people against them.”
On Saturday, Ms. Banerjee said she had specific information that meetings had taken place recently between certain Ministers belonging to the CPI(M) and persons with vested interests from other parties. Since they could not fight her “politically and democratically,” she alleged that “suicide squads” were being formed to “eliminate” her.
