Mamta turns down Bengal CM's talks offer

Adopting a strident posture, the Trinamool Congress on Monday turned down West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's offer of dialogue and said that the party along with other outfits opposing farmland acquisition would march to Singur on December 7.

Charging Bhattacharya with running the state in a "dictatorial" manner, TC chief Mamta Banerjee said that no dialogue was possible unless the state government withdrew the notification for farmland acquisition.

"It is our challenge to the chief minister. We are prepared to face bullets and go to jail. We want to see how many bullets they can fire," the TC chief, who went on an indefinite fast on the Singur issue during the day, told reporters in Kolkata.

However, Banerjee, who was twice stopped by the police from going to Singur, the site of the Tata Motors car project, did not divulge from where the party would take up the march or whether she would participate in it.

Banerjee also announced that roads would be blocked for two hours throughout the state on December 6 from 12 noon as part of the movement against acquisition of agricultural land for industry and to press for Bhattacharya's resignation.

TC workers would burn the chief minister's effigy on December 6, she said.

"We believe in democracy, but the state government should not force us to take a violent path," she warned.