New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday criticised Home Minister P. Chidambaram for "diluting" his proactive approach in tackling Maoists due to "lack of support within the government".

"The (home minister's) enthusiasm to lead the battle against Maoists now seems to have diluted," a BJP statement said two days after Maoists massacred 31 people in Chhattisgarh.

"Faced with the internal contradictions and lack of support within the government, he now takes a safer position that the context of a ‘limited mandate’ only meant that the states must tackle Maoism and the central government will only play a supportive role," it added.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar strongly criticised Chidambaram's position on battling the Maoist menace.

"It seems the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) is under pressure, the home minister has retreated from his earlier position of fighting the Naxals. He is now saying it's a law and order situation that should be tackled by the states. We condemn that approach," he said.

The party also alleged that people within the Congress advocate a soft line towards the guerrillas.

"The political line advocated by some Congress leaders appears to be that the Centre need not be very vocal or proactive in the battle against Maoism. Such statements have repeatedly been made by Congress leaders."

"The home minister is now hiding behind the logic of the responsibility to tackle Maoism primarily being the responsibility of the states with the Centre only playing a supportive role," the statement said.

The BJP statement comes after Chidambaram Tuesday said that it was the state's responsibility to tackle Maoists.

"Our mandate is to help the state governments take on the challenge of Naxalites by providing paramilitary forces, intelligence and technical assistance. It's the state governments which have the primary responsibility to tackle the menace of Naxalism. It is in that context that I said that our mandate is a limited mandate," the home minister had said.