Reiterating that it is “common knowledge” that the Trinamool Congress has links with the Maoists, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and member of its Polit Bureau, Sitaram Yechury, has dismissed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s charge that his party was another face of the Maoists as one made by “those who do not know history.”
Ms. Banerjee has been suggesting in recent times that there is little difference between the Maoists and the CPI(M).
Asked by journalists here on Monday to comment on her charge, Mr. Yechury pointed out it was the ultra left — the naxalites and the Maoists — who had broken away from the CPI(M). Ever since, their hostilities had been directed against the CPI(M) which is their “principal opponent.”
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“Only those who do not know history say such things,” he said, referring to Ms. Banerjee’s remarks.
“The Maoists are being patronised by the Trinamool Congress,” Mr. Yechury said.
“Kishanji [Maoist leader] has also said that after the coming [Assembly] elections, Mamata Banerjee will be the Chief Minister,” he said.
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On Ms. Banerjee’s demand for the dismissal of the Left Front government, he said there was nothing new in it as it was “one constant element of her politics.”