Kolkata, Nov 9 (IANS) Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Monday threatened to file a defamation case against West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for alleging that her partymen were aiding the Maoists in killing Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) activists.
."We will look for legal redressal. In the past whenever we have given legal notice to CPI-M leaders, their lawyers have denied that their clients ever made such statements," Banerjee said at a party rally here.
"This time we will sue him for defaming us by bracketing us with Maoists.
"It's a baseless charge," said Banerjee, also the railways minister.
At a rally in West Midnapore district's Debra, Bhattacharjee had Sunday reiterated his charge that the Trinamool was in collusion with Maoist rebels to kill CPI-M leaders.
"The Maoists don't have the organisational strength to go to all the villages. It is the Trinamool which is guiding them and showing them CPI-M party offices and houses of our leaders. It is also helping the Maoists identify our leaders. And within a few days, these leaders are being murdered by the ultras," Bhattacharjee had said.
Banerjee also countered Bhatacharjee's claim that the railways had deliberately not mentioned the name of the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) when it detained the Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express at Banstala station for over four hours Oct 27.
"If I had links with the Maoists, passengers of Rajdhani Express would not have remained held up for six hours," she said.
Banerjee said there was a vast difference between the ideals of the Maoists and the Trinamool. "We are for peace. We are opposed to all kinds of violence. We believe in Gandhiism and socialism. But that does not mean we harbour hatred against supporters of Marxism and Leninism. We are receptive to whatever is good in every ideology."
She also accused the chief minister of making provocative statements at Debra which resulted in the Maoists fatally shooting four Eastern Fronter Rifles (EFR) jawans at Jamboni.
"Irresponsible statements made by the chief minister provoked Sunday's killing. Only he is responsible for the attack," she said, and demanded an inquiry into the Jamboni killings.
"I doubt who killed these policemen. Is it the Maoists or the CPI-M?" she asked.
She exhorted the policemen to safeguard their own security. "This government is not going to do anything to protect you".
Throwing a challenge to the Maoists, Bhattacharjee had said: "We'll defeat Maoist ultras and will chase them out of our state".
Several intellectuals like painter Subho Prasanna and singer Nachiketa walked three km alongside Banerjee and a number of Trinamool MPs and MLAs in the rally which threw traffic out of gear in parts of central Kolkata.
The rally was called against the ongoing terror and violence in the state.