As a result, her announced programme of a sit-in demonstration at Esplanade to protest the arrest of party legislators, turned out to be a damp squib. Even though she had announced she would address the gathering, she cancelled it at the last moment after getting report of a poor turnout.

 

“What is she up to? She must stop these gimmicks and should not deviate from her agenda of capturing power in the next assembly election,” said a retired government employee, who voted for her party in the last Lok Sabha election.

 

Her constant refusal to condemn the attacks by the Maoists in the state and growing demand to withdraw the central para-military forces, engaged in combating the rebels in three districts of the state, has raised many questions in the political circle. While CPI (M) leader Mohammed Salim asked Banerjee to clearly spell out her party’s stand against the Maoists, a senior state Congress leader said she could not oppose the Centre’s actions as a partner of the UPA Government.

 

Though the Trinamool Congress Chief preferred to remain silent, her lieutenants made ridiculous statements accusing the CPI (M), for encouraging Maoist attacks in the state. Leader of the opposition Partho Chattopadhyay, demanded a central probe into Tuesday’s attack on Sankaril Police station and alleged that the CPI (M) cadres had been trying to gain lost ground, with the help of the central and state forces. He also claimed that there was no Maoist in the state.

 

Union Minister Sisir Adhikari, went a step ahead and blamed the Chief Minister “for organising the attack on the police station”, while his son Subhendu Adhikari, also an MP, urged the policemen in the state to revolt.

 

The Maoists, who reportedly came on motorcycles, killed two police officers, kidnapped the officer in charge and looted firearms from the police station and cash from a nearby nationalised bank, before escaping onto the jungles at Sankrail near Jhargram, West Midnapore district on Tuesday.

 

The state government has been demanding a joint operation by the security forces from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa, to flush out the Maoists. The CPI (M) has alleged that big money powers from within the country and abroad had been playing a heinous role to forge an alliance between the extreme leftists and the extreme rightists to overthrow the Left Front government.

 

Intelligence agencies have also been probing the role of two foreigners, who recently visited the Maoist dominated areas of Jharkhand and Lalgarh. The two were reportedly members of a foreign NGO. The agencies were also looking into a report that the Maoists attended a couple of meetings with their Nepalese counterparts and other rebel groups from the North eastern parts of the country.

 

Political observers said the Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh must pursue Ms Banerjee to take and against the Maoists and support the joint actions by the Centre and the states to crush the Maoist depredations.

 

Some Maoists have claimed that they had been working jointly with the Trinamool Congress in Nandigram, Singur, Khejuri and Lalgarh against the CPI (M). The Trinamool Congress leaders had repeatedly denied the existence of the Maoists in the state.