Congress to boycott meeting convened by Chhattisgarh CM

The Naxal ambush on a Congress convoy near Darbha on Saturday has kicked off a war between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh.

The attack had left 28 dead, including state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and former leader of the Opposition Mahendra Karma.

After castigating the state government for failing to provide adequate security to its leaders, the Congress has now decided to boycott the all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Raman Singh on Friday.

Leader of the Opposition Ravindra Choubey said the Congress would boycott the meeting, as the meeting “did not have meaning”.

He said the state government wasn’t doing anything to tackle the Naxal issue and protect Opposition leaders.

Friday’s meeting is aimed at taking all political parties into confidence for a renewed offensive against the Naxal menace in Bastar. With the ongoing political rift, anti-Naxal operations could be hit.

Earlier, Congress leaders had said the state government’s failure to provide security to its leader was part of a “conspiracy”. They had also accused the BJP government of having ties with Naxals.

To this, BJP spokesperson Ajay Chandrakar said the Naxal problem had resulted from the misrule of the Congress government in the past.

After senior leaders of the Congress as well as the BJP had visited Chhatisgarh from New Delhi, they had assured there would be no politics over the issue.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Raman Singh has announced a school in Dantewada would be named after Mahendra Karma.