Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sends reply to Chidambaram second letter

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said he had given a reply to the second letter sent to him by home minister P Chidambaram, inviting him for a meeting to discuss the Maoist issue.

"The chief minister has received two letters from the Union home minister today and has sent his reply," the chief minister's office said without divulging into the contents.

Asked if he would go to Delhi as requested by the Union home minister, Bhattacharjee told reporters while leaving the state secretariat, "I have given a reply."

"I stand by what I have already told you," he said when asked specifically what he had written in his reply.

Chidamabaram sent two letters during the day to Bhattacharjee in reply to his December 28 communication.

In his reply yesterday to the first letter, Bhattacharjee had questioned the partiality of Chidambaram on his assessment on law and order in the state.

He had also taken exception to the use of the word 'harmad' in the letter.

Trinamool Congress supremo and railway minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the chief minister of skirting the main issue of the existence of armed CPI(M) camps and demanded his resignation saying the home minister's letter was tantamount to application of Article 355 in the state.