New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Forward Bloc Thursday alleged that the Trinamool Congress ministers at the centre were instigating violence across West Bengal to facilitate imposition of president’s rule in the state there.
The Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, urged the central government to send an official delegation to the state to decide on the use of Article 355, followed by the imposition of Article 356 in the state to clamp president’s rule on West Bengal.

“Most of them (the Trinamool Congress ministers) are camping in the state and instigating violence across the state. Their intention is to create a situation conducive to invoking Article 356 in the state and then press for an early assembly polls,” Basudeb Acharia, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader in the Lok Sabha, alleged.

Many parts of West Bengal have been under the grip of violence by Maoist rebels for over a month now.

Referring to incidents of violence in Lalgarh after the visit of Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikari in the area last month, Acharia said the Trinamool Congress ministers wanted to spread it to other areas of the state.

“The Trinamool leaders have been associated with the Maoists to create trouble in the state,” Acharia alleged.

Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, however, argued that parliamentary democracy was on the verge of collapse in West Bengal and the “central government should intervene urgently to invoke Article 355 in the state followed by the imposition of Article 356.”

“There is state-sponsored terrorism in several parts of the state. The voice of opposition has been suppressed. Life and properties of SC/ST (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) and minorities are at stake,” Bandyopadhyay, the chief whip of Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, told IANS.

Acharia said the Left parties would oppose any move by the central government to invoke Article 355 in the areas hit by Maoist violence.

“The law and order situation is a state subject. We will oppose any move to invoke Article 355,” Acharia told IANS on phone from his constituency Bankura in West Bengal.

Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has been pressurising the government to invoke Article 355 in Maoist affected areas. She has also asked the central government to take over law and order and development in the Maoist violence affected regions in the country.

Forward Bloc national secretary G. Devarajan called Mamata Banerjee’s move as “politically motivated” and said it would lead to the collapse of the federal structure of the country.

He said the Trinamool Congress leadership were openly hand in glove with the Maoists.

“Chattradhar Mahato, leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities in Lalgargh, was a former leader of the Trinamool Congress. He is enjoying the support of both the Maoists and Trinamool Congress,” Devarajan alleged.

He also urged the Trinamool Congress to end the patronage it was giving to the Maoists.