Kolkata, Nov 1 (IANS) Seeking to counter West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s charge that her party was hand-in-glove with the Maoist rebels, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday demanded action against the state’s ruling communists for “carrying out armed operation” against political rivals.
“The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) cadres are conducting armed operation. The Moists are also doing the same. Maoists are banned. Then why should not CPI-M be banned?” Banerjee asked.

The railway minister also made a direct attack on Bhattacharjee, describing him as the ‘leader’ of both Maoists and Marxists. “The Maoists and Marxists are opposite sides of the same coin,” Banerjee said at a media conference at her south Kolkata residence.

She also referred to two police constables, Kanchan Garai and Sabir Ali Mullah, who are missing since July 30 after they were deputed to Lalgarh for the anti-Maoist operation amidst fears that the Left wing ultras have abducted them.

“How did they go missing? Was it not Buddhadebbabu’s duty to inform their families about what happened to them?” she asked.

Banerjee also accused the CPI-M of having killed 69 of her party’s activists across the state in the last couple of months.

“Many more Trinamool workers are still missing after they were taken away by the CPI-M. I have got reports that these people have been beaten to death and their bodies thrown into rivers. There is no rule of law in the state,” said the Trinamool supremo.

“Would the Marxists have sat silently had such things taken place in Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh or Delhi?” she asked.

Two days back, Bhattacherjee blasted the railways for not naming the Maoists in the FIR lodged in connection with the OCT 27 Rajdhani Express hold-up drama, and alleged that the Trinamool Congress had an understanding with the Maoists to dislodge the Left Front government.

A Maoist-backed tribal organisation had held up the Delhi-bound Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express for over four hours at Banstala Halt station in Midnapore district, demanding the withdrawal of the joint security forces fighting the rebels and release of some tribal leaders.