New Delhi, Tuesday 09 February 2010: Apparently defending Trinamool Congress, which has been accused by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of colluding with Maoists, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday said any party believing in parliamentary democracy could not do so.

“Nobody is colluding with Maoists. Any political party in India that believes in parliamentary democracy cannot collude with Maoists,” Chidambaram told a press conference after a meeting with Chief Ministers of four naxal-affected States, including West Bengal, here.
He said Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had told him that anti-Maoist operations in West Midnapore district in West Bengal were not yielding results.

“She (Banerjee) told me that the (anti-naxal) operations we are doing in West Midnapur have not been yielding the result that we hoped to achieve when we started the operation. She has a point of view and I have taken note of her point of view and I said we will try to make it as effective as possible,” the Home Minister said.

Chidambaram said Ms. Banerjee was concerned that innocent people should not be affected by the anti-Maoist operations.“We are taking steps to see that innocent people are not affected,” he said.

(PTI)