Buoyed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram's statement about the presence of camps housing armed cadres in the Jangalmahal region (south western forest areas) of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday criticised the Left Front government for “clinging on to power.”
Addressing a party rally here, Ms. Banerjee said Governor M.K. Narayanan “has reported about the presence of camps set up by armed Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres and today [Wednesday] the Union Home Minister too said so. While the Centre is doing its job by conducting security operations, I want to ask who has authorised the CPI(M) cadres to set up camps and carry arms in the region. It has broken the rules of the Constitution by doing so.”
Rubbishing claims by her political opponents that her party was tacitly supporting Maoists, she pointed out that Trinamool did not have a single MP or MLA from the three Maoist-affected districts while the CPI(M) enjoyed a “monopoly” in this region.
Reiterating her demand for seizure of illegal arms, Ms. Banerjee once more alleged that the CPI(M) was behind the May 28 Jnaneswari Express derailment as well as the train collision at Sainthia on July 19.
