During the meeting that took place after a gap of six years, she asked the Congress president to forget political compulsions and visit the violence-hit Nandigram.
NEW DELHI: Amid talk of a possible realignment, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, an estranged Congress leader who had joined hands with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Friday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
During the meeting that took place after a gap of six years, she asked the Congress president to forget political compulsions and visit the violence-hit Nandigram in West Bengal, where her party-supported anti-land acquisition group members have been locked in a violent clash with communist activists.
According to Banerjee, who had a 15-minute meeting with Gandhi at the latter's 10 Janpath residence, the Congress president expressed her concern and worry over the developments in Nandigram.
"I requested her to send a UPA (United Progressive Alliance) team to Nandigram. I can understand her political compulsions, but this is a matter of human rights," she said.
Over 35 people have been killed since January in Nandigram, which witnessed violence over a proposed special economic zone (SEZ) the West Bengal government wanted to set up on farmland. The proposal was scrapped later, but a turf war continued between the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and a Trinamool Congress-backed group of local villagers.
The CPI-M-led Left parties provide the UPA government parliamentary support.
Banerjee said she had demanded that the central government send more paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force personnel to Nandigram to boost the confidence of the people in the area.
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