The CPI(M) is determined to put Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in the dock for allegedly inciting communal passion.
This became evident on Thursday when only two days after state party secretary Biman Bose lodged a complaint with the state election commission against her on this issue, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and CPI(M) leader of Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia met Union home minister P. Chidambaram to complain that Ms Banerjee was making inflammatory speeches in the run up to the Kolkata municipal corporation elections to foment communal tension.
Defending his party’s decision to seek the Union home minister’s intervention in the matter, CPI(M) central committee member Mohammed Salim said: “It was necessary to apprise the secular UPA government about the blatant manner in which its major ally was creating a communal scare for petty electoral gains in the civic polls.”
Ms Banerjee had in her election campaign rallies on May 14 and 17 allegedly claimed to have secret reports that the CPI(M) might trigger communal clashes with the help of the police in Muslim-dominated areas.