The Hindu : Front Page : Mamata alleges CPI(M) hand in West Bengal rail accidents

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Mamata alleges CPI(M) hand in West Bengal rail accidents

Raktima Bose

“WON'T QUIT”: Union Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee addressing the party's Shahid Diwas rally in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Kolkata: Ruling out her resignation on moral grounds over the train accident at Sainthia in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Union Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hinted that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) could be behind the accident and in the Jnaneswari Express derailment on May 28. Ms. Banerjee was addressing a ‘Martyrs' Day' rally organised by her party to mark the death of 13 Youth Congress supporters in police firing at a protest rally this day 17 years ago. She said while the Jnaneswari derailment took place two days ahead of the civic elections to 81 municipalities, the Sainthia accident happened two days before the Martyrs' Day function.

Emphasising that both the areas where the two accidents took place were “red forts,” Ms. Banerjee accused the CPI(M) of “conspiring” against her but declined to elaborate on the subject since inquiries were on in both cases.

“I will personally visit Alimuddin Street [where the State headquarters of the CPI(M) is located] and tender my resignation to Biman Bose [chairman of the State Left Front Committee] if the CPI(M) guarantees that it will not indulge in any more act of sabotage,” she said.

“I lost in the State Assembly election in 2001 since I resigned from the Centre. It is another of the CPI(M)'s conspiracy to ask me to resign since the Assembly elections are scheduled in 2011. Several persons have called me up in the last two days and urged me not to resign by falling into this trap,” she added.

Reacting to criticism by a section of her detractors about observing the Martyrs' Day on such a large scale when more than 60 persons were killed in Sainthia, she said: “My identity is not that of a Railway Minister but as one of the many common people of West Bengal.”

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