Showing a gesture to his alliance partner Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s over charges that the Marxist party has set up a suicide squad to eliminate her, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee promised all the security arrangements for her vis-a-vis any threat.
“I became aware of it (the allegation) in the newspaper. Proper security arrangements will be made for her in the wake of that threat perception,” Mr Mukherjee said on Sunday, adding that the allegation has been made by a Central government minister.
Significantly, rather than the Maoists, Mamata feared that the attack on her and on Trinamul MP Subhendu Adhikary could come from a suicide squad that had been formed by the CPI(M). She also claimed that she had specific information this suicide squad being raised in some camps the Red party was running in and around Lalgarh. The Trinamul Congress chief had made the startling allegations at her Kalighat residence on Saturday.
“These cowards (some CPI(M) ministers and leaders) have no moral courage to fight against me politically and are thus forming a suicide squad to eliminate me,” she said, adding that the CPI(M) and some other political parties which have vested interests have held a meeting and hatched a conspiracy to eliminate me. “Such a meeting was held, you can inquire,” claimed Ms Banerjee.
Meanwhile, rubbishing Ms Banerjee`s sensational charge on the big brother party, senior RSP (a constituent of the Left Front) leader Kshiti Goswami said, “This is quite a baseless charge. Before raising a storm over a hypothesis, she should have given proper evidence in support of her allegation.”