'Trinamool, Maoists jointly unleashing violence'

With the crucial by-election to 10 assembly seats in West Bengal barely nine days away, Communist Party of India-Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu on Sunday charged Trinamool Congress with joining hands with the Maoists to unleash violence in the state.

"Everyday our workers are getting killed. Common people, police personnel, doctors, nurses are also slained. Our party office is burnt. Trinamool Congress and Maoists are doing this together. They are taking law into their own hands," the nonagenarian leader said in a statement.

Describing the coming assembly by-polls as 'very important,' Basu said, "Democracy is under attack, peace is disturbed. We had restored peace and democracy in 1977 with people's support."

Seeking support for the Leftists, Basu said, "Our result in the last Lok Sabha election was poor. Some of our sympathisers and friends had voted against us. It is not their fault. We could not take our view points properly to the people," his statement stated.

Basu's statement, which came after the CPI-M-led Left Front's successive poor showing in the Lok Sabha, assembly by-elections and municipal polls, also admitted that there were some mistakes on the part of party.

Image: CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu