Calcutta, Dec. 1: The Left Front today stepped up its criticism of the Centre for sending a team to assess the state’s law and order but made it clear the protest was not aimed at the Congress but its ally Mamata Banerjee.

The stand is in tune with its efforts to make a distinction between the Congress and Trinamul, which has emerged as a bigger adversary in Bengal, and possibly drive a wedge between the two.

So Biman Bose, the state CPM secretary and front chairman, was careful not to club Union home minister P. Chidambaram with railway minister Mamata while making a high-pitched protest against the “central interference” and urging Delhi to spell out its position on the “Mamata-Maoist nexus”.

The front representatives’ memorandum to the central officials today and submission of “evidence” of the alleged nexus and a list of people said to have been killed by the combine were part of that exercise.

“There was no need to send the home ministry team. They could have obtained specific information (about the law-and-order situation) from the state government, as it has always been,’’ Bose said after a front meeting this morning.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who did not attend the meeting, kept mum on Chidambaram’s move, apparently for the sake of their “good working relations”, crucial for the ongoing operations against the Maoists.

“The team has been sent under pressure from Trinamul, which is trying to confuse people by comparing its visit with central intervention under Article 355 (of the Constitution) and (suggesting it is a) prelude to President’s rule under article 356,’’ said Bose.

“If the Centre wants to teach Bengal a lesson by imposing 356, the people of the state are ready to face the challenge,” he added.

However, he clarified soon after that the “challenge was for Mamata, not the Centre”.

“I know it (to teach Bengal a lesson) is not the attitude of the central government. Chidambaram said he didn’t want confrontation and was not going to use 356,’’ Bose said, adding: “But he should clear the confusions created by his ally Trinamul, which has been harping on President’s rule.”

Even as Mamata tried to use the team’s visit to highlight the state’s failure to maintain law and order and make her case for central intervention, the CPM drew Delhi’s attention to her alleged liaison with the Maoists.

Mohammad Salim, who led the front team that met the central officials, said: “The Centre is privy to all the information and it knows how Trinamul has aided and abetted the Maoist violence.”

As Mamata tried to pressure the Centre to send its team to Khanakul and other places where her supporters have been under attack, Bose stressed on the team also visiting the Maoist-hit districts. “They can’t be selective,” he said.

A day after the Left got the BJP’s support in Parliament while decrying the central team’s visit, the front tried a balancing act, announcing the December 6 launch of a campaign against both the Congress and the BJP over the Liberhan commission’s report.

“The report has given a clean chit to the Narasimha Rao government despite his failure to take measures to protect the Babri mosque. On the other hand, the Centre’s action-taken report is evasive on those (BJP leaders) who have been indicted by the commission,’’ Bose said.

He denied any understanding between the CPM and the BJP in Parliament and condemned the violence during yesterday’s BJP-sponsored bandh. “The BJP and other parties opposed the violation of the Constitution (in sending the team) as they felt the same danger hangs over other Opposition-ruled states,” Bose said.