PTI

Kolkata, Jun 22: West Bengal's ruling Left Front on Monday said it was against banning the CPI (Maoist) and will counter such outfits politically, days after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stated that his government will give a serious thought to proscribing the Naxals.

"We have decided that such outfits, which follow misguided politics, cannot be countered by banning them. It is important to counter the activities of these outfits politically," Left Front chairman Biman Bose said here.

He said that the fight of the Leftists against the "misguided politics" of the Maoists was on. "We are opposing the terrorist activities of the Maoists and that is why we are attacked," he said in a statement.

Bose said it was a continuous political process to "alienate" people from the "dangerous politics" pursued by the Maoists. "This work has to be carried on," he said.

He, however, said that it was necessary to take administrative steps to restore normal life of the people.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union home minister P Chidambaram on Saturday, had stated that his government was considering banning the CPI (Maoist) after the Centre's suggestion in this regard following the Naxal violence in Lalgarh.

"Home minister Chidamabarm advised me to ban this organisation. We have to give it a serious thought," Bhattacharjee had told reporters in New Delhi. "We have started thinking what to do," he had said.

Chidambaram had earlier said that the state government should ban the Maoists. "We think they (Maoists) should be banned in West Bengal as in other states," he had said.

The CPI and Forward Bloc, two major LF constituents, also said that the problem would not be solved by banning the Maoists.

CPI state council secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar said, "We do not think a ban on them will solve the problem; it has to be solved politically. There may be a dialogue with the ultras, but before that they have to eschew the politics of murder and anarchy."

Echoing his views, Forward Bloc secretary Ashok Ghose said, "We have fundamental differences with the Maoists, but they are not our class enemies. We are against imposing ban on them. We want them to follow the democratic path and we are totally against their politics of terrorism."