Kolkata, July 03: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today snubbed the opposition Congress in the state assembly for questioning his close ties with BJP leader and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani. Brushing aside Congress' claim that the Marxist chief minister had been "hobnobbing" with the BJP leader, Bhattacharjee said that the relation between him and the Deputy Prime Minister was "nothing more" than what was expected of a chief minister of a state with a deputy prime minister.

Bhattcharjee said he would never "hobnob with those responsible for the Babri mosque demolition" and countercharged Asit Mitra (Congress) that it was the Congress whose leader and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao "was equally guilty of the crime by not deploying army" even as he was requested to do so by former chief minister Jyoti Basu in Ayodhya in 1992.

The Chief Minister was participating in a debate on the budgetary demands for the home (P and AR) department.
Bureau Report