Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday vowed to “throw out” both the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress from the state. Addressing a massive Left Front rally in West Midnapore, the Maoist bastion, Mr Bhattacharjee said the Maoists were indulging in bloodbath in the Jangalmahal with the connivance of the Trinamul Congress.
“The Maoists and the Trinamul Congress are creating unrest in the state. The Maoists are murdering people indiscriminately while the Trinamul Congress is assuring them that they will protect them but they will not be able to protect them,” he said.
Mr Bhattacharjee said that the Maoist gameplan was to capture power through the gun. “I can assure you that we will defeat the Maoists just as we had defeated the Naxals who had raised their heads from Naxalbari in Darjeeling district in 1967,” he added. In his 20 minute speech, Mr Bhattacharjee launched a two-pronged scathing attack against the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress and possibly for the first time, he even mentioned Ms Banerjee by her name. He exhorted his party supporters to put up a fight against both adversaries. “The entire politics of Trinamul Congress is built on falsehood and its leader speaks nothing but lies. We have to rip their mask off to show their unholy nexus with the Maoists. Our fight will continue and we must evict both the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress from this soil,” he thundered.
The turf war in Jangalmahal has heated up between the CPI(M) and the Trinamul Congress. Ms Banerjee had addressed a rally at Lalgarh on August 9 and on Saturday Mr Bhattacharjee addressed a rally in Midnapore town, — the first in two years. For two years, the CPI(M) was at the backfoot because of the Maoist onslaught. But following successes of the joint operation, the Maoists are now feeling the heat. The CPI(M) cadre have now started regaining lost ground. “The situation is changing. People are resisting. We have to resist Maoists who are indiscriminately killing poor and innocent people almost daily and leaving bodies on the roads,” Mr Bhattacharjee said.
Reacting sharply, the Trinamul Congress chief said that his rally was aimed at strengthening the hands of CPI(M) goons.
“He does not have the courage to step into Lalgarh,” she said, adding that she would organise a counter-rally at Midnapore.