Kolkata: The Centre's decision to send a
team to West Bengal "to assess the situation" was as good as
warning the state under Article 355, Trinamool Congress chief
Mamata Banerjee today said, while sticking to her demand for
imposition of President's rule.
However, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declined
to comment on the visit of the central team to the state.
"Sending a central team to assess the situation in the
state is tantamount to invoking Article 355 to teach the state
government to perform its rajdharma," Banerjee told reporters
here on the eve of the arrival of the central team.
"The visit of a central team means that law and order has
collapsed and there is a constitutional breakdown in the
state," she said.
Quoting Union Home minister P Chidambaram's statement in
Lok Sabha that Article 356 could not be misused, she said
"none of us want its misuse. We won the Lok Sabha and other
elections without President's rule...We want imposition of
Article 356 in the state to stop state-sponsored terror."
Meanwhile, the chief minister today declined to comment
on the issue with the shook of his head, while leaving CPI(M)
state headquarters at the end of party's two-day state
committee meeting.
The decision to send a three-member central team followed
major UPA ally Trinamool Congress' demand, which alleged that
the CPI(M) had unleashed a 'reign of terror' in the state.
‘BJP-CPI(M) working together’
She also accused former ally BJP of being in league with West Bengal's
ruling CPI(M) as the saffron party enforced a violence marred
12-hour bandh in the state.
"The CPI(M) and BJP had been working together in the
state since the Lok Sabha election. CPI(M) cadres carrying BJP
flags resorted to vandalism on instructions from the party,"
Banerjee told reporters here.
She also accused the state administration and police of
being inactive in the face of vandalism during the shutdown
called against the price rise.
-PTI
First Published: Monday, November 30, 2009, 22:58