Leaders owing allegiance to Bengal Congress leaders in the Union cabinet have accused the former of helping chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s cause.
Leaders from the state lash out at UPA for its silence on Nandigram violence
KOLKATA: The Nandigram issue has vertically split the Congress in West Bengal.
While one faction has criticised the Congress high command for not taking a stand on the Nandigram crisis, leaders owing allegiance to Bengal Congress leaders in the Union cabinet have accused the former of helping chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s cause.
Calling for a broad-based anti-Left political platform in West Bengal, Somen Mitra, MLA and former president, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and Sudip Bandopadhyay, joint secretary in the state Congress, said the people of Nandigram expected the UPA government to stand by them. “Not only the people of Nandigram but even ordinary people who denounced what had happened there are ashamed of the inaction of the party,” the leaders said.
“When CPM cadres were unleashing anarchy in Nandigram, the Centre should not have shirked responsibility on the plea that law and order was a state subject. This is not about law and order but complicity of the ruling party in the violence,” Sudip Bandhopadyay said.
“The people of Nandigram hoped that the UPA government would take strong measures to prevent violence. Such expectations increased after the visit of a high-profile NDA team. But no such thing was done by the UPA government. Nandigram residents have realised that the government at the Centre does not sympathise with their plight. Even we are dumfounded by the UPA’s reaction and have nothing to say that will console the people,” Mitra said. He called for immediate steps to form an anti-Left platform in the state which he believed could give a fitting drubbing to the Left Front in the panchayat elections slated next year.
However, Pradip Bhattacharjee, working president, state Congress, and Manas Bhuiyan, owing allegiance to Union cabinet minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi have remained silent on the Nandigram issue. Another Dasmunshi ally, Subrata Mukherjee, lashed out at those revolting against the party high command, saying hose criticising the Congress were `reading from a script prepared by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.”
Political analysts said that political compulsions of the two Congress factions were obvious. Bengal leaders in power in UPA clearly did not want to rock the boat by attacking the Left, while the political future of state leaders depended on how strongly they could be seen and heard opposing the ruling party.
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