Mamata Banerjee chose confrontation: Yechury

New Delhi: CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said on Wednesday that the delegation from West Bengal led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee chose to enter into a confrontation with SFI activists at the Planning Commission in New Delhi.

Yechury said that security personnel had told the West Bengal delegation to enter the Planning Commission through another gate, but they chose to use the entrance where the Students Federation of India (SFI) activists had gathered to peacefully protest the killing of student leader Sudipto Gupta in Kolkata while under police custody April 2. Yechury condemned the incident, and said the party was looking into how it happened. "The information we have is that the delegation from West Bengal was told by security persons to enter the building through a particular gate, as demonstrators were not there," said Yechury. "But the delegation chose to have a confrontation, and entered through the gate where demonstrators were standing. Having said that, we totally disapprove it (the heckling). Ours was a peaceful demonstration to condemn the death of a 22-year-old in police custody, when we were demanding judicial custody," he said. He also condemned the attacks on CPI-M offices in West Bengal. Banerjee Tuesday faced noisy protests from SFI -- the student wing of the CPI-M -- as activists also heckled state Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission, protesting the young comrade`s death. The delegation had arrived in the national capital to finalise the state`s annual plan. IANS