'Maoists helping Trinamool in ousting Left Front'

The CPI(M) on Tuesday alleged that the Maoists were engaged in the "nefarious" game of helping the Trinamool Congress in its bid to oust the Left front Government in West Bengal.

"They (Maoists) are acting in collusion with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. They are playing a very nefarious game of helping the Trinamool-Congress combine to try and oust the Left Front Government in West Bengal," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters in Hyderabad.

Stating that not a day passed without attacks on CPI(M) cadres and supporters, he claimed that in the last few months after the general elections, the Maoists had killed about 70 of the Left party's members and sympathisers.

"What are the Maoists hoping to gain by targeting CPI(M). A Maoist leader Koteshwara Rao says in a television interview that they want TMC chief Mamata Banerjee as the next chief minister of West Bengal. This collusion between the TMC and Maoists fully exposes the so-called revolutionary character and the movement of Maoists," he said.

The CPI(M) leader alleged that the TMC and the Congress were trying to undo the gains of land reforms and decentralisation in panchayats in West Bengal ushered in by the Left front government.