Calcutta, Nov. 30: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today told his colleagues that it was “natural” for police and administration not to act when they sniffed change but advised comrades not to retaliate against attacks by the Trinamul Congress and Maoists, according to Left leaders.

The chief minister’s remarks came in response to persistent complaints from CPM state committee members as well as Left Front legislators at separate meetings during the day that police officers and bureaucrats were refusing to intervene when cadres were being attacked.

According to participants at the CPM meeting, Bhattacharjee promised to look into the complaints but reminded them that it was “natural” in a situation of political flux.

“I can’t ask the officials to be partisan to us but to be neutral. If people are with us, the behaviour of police and administration will change,’’ a participant quoted the chief minister as telling the state committee.

Sceptical, some members said a good section of the rank and file wanted the party to resist the Opposition attacks, but Bhattacharjee made his disapproval clear and asked them to “rein in those leaders who are taking the law into their own hands”.

The chief minister asked them to “expose” the corruption and poor performance of Trinamul’s central ministers and the party-run rural and civic bodies.

“The party needs to protect our workers. But the Opposition is trying to provoke us into confrontation as their aim is to destabilise the government and make a case for imposition of President’s rule. We are in the government and we can’t be irresponsible like them,’’ Bhattacharjee was quoted as saying.

Without naming the hawks like Hooghly’s Anil Basu and West Midnapore’s Sushanta Ghosh who are asking for “counter-violence”, he criticised the hardliners.

Earlier, the chief minister had to face angry Left MLAs who complained about the police’s “failure” to protect their party leaders from the attackers. Bhattacharjee was meeting the MLAs at the onset of the Assembly session.

“Jangalmahale ar koto rakta jharbe (How much more blood will be shed in Jangalmahal)?” the CPI MLA from West Midnapore, Chitta Das Thakur, asked him.

An embarrassed chief minister tried to calm the MLAs, assuring them that he was trying his best to contain the “Trinamul-Maoist joint violence”. “This is not a proper forum to discuss such things (regarding the role of police). Please have patience. We are trying to improve law and order,” a participant quoted Bhattacharjee as saying.

But some MLAs said later that little had changed after similar assurances earlier.

Another “recurring failure” — the dismal state of rural electrification — was also raised. “Last time, too, you had assured us that initiatives would be taken to meet the target fast. But the ground reality has not changed and we are at the receiving end of villagers’ ire,” said the Socialist Party’s Bramhamoy Nanda, reflecting the MLAs’ jitters before the Assembly polls.

In an effort to silence dissenters and critics, state party secretary Biman Bose again censured land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah at the state committee. “He had earlier denied having said anything against the party. But he has assured me that he would not criticise the party in public,’’ Bose told the meeting.