Calcutta, Feb. 3: The CPM today blamed the UPA government led by the Congress and its ally Mamata Banerjee for sitting tight on the Ranganath Misra commission’s recommendations on reservations for Muslims in government jobs and education.

It also trained its guns at the Centre for its failure to arrest the food price rise and unemployment.

The party, however, underlined its satisfaction with the Centre and the Congress on the fight against Maoists while harping on Trinamul’s “nexus” with the guerrillas.

The issues will be the highlights of the CPM’s campaign against the Trinamul-Congress alliance in the run-up to the mid-year civic polls, the countdown to which begins with a Brigade rally on Sunday.

Mamata had said that the state should implement the quota for Muslims first while promising to do so if she came to power. Reacting to that, the CPM’s Mohammad Salim said Mamata was never in favour of the Centre’s “affirmative actions” for Muslims but was trying to play vote-bank politics now by promising jobs.