Sonachura (Nandigram), Nov. 3: Mamata Banerjee sees the CPM involved in another shadowy business venture around Nandigram.

“Marx and Mao” are involved in “a joint venture”, the Trinamul Congress chief told her first post-general election rally at the cradle of her political resurgence.

A joint venture on what? On a “santrasher bhandar (storehouse of terror)”, said Mamata, who kept breaking out in rhyme and riddles. The thousands at the Sonachura high school grounds rose and fell with her poetry.

The reference was to the September 22 murder of Nishikanta Mondal, Trinamul panchayat pradhan of Sonachura, whose attackers had distributed Maoist leaflets. Trinamul leaders think the CPM killed Mondal and is now hiding behind the Maoists.

Mao is the mask and the Marxists the face, the railway minister, accused of not making her stand clear on the Maoist violence, said today.

The meeting was in Mondal’s memory, and in protest against the CPM’s November 7 recapture of Nandigram two years ago. It was also a symbolic return to Ground Zero ahead of Saturday’s bypolls to 10 Assembly seats, two of them — Egra and Contai South — in East Midnapore.

As Mamata approached the stage, youth leader Subhendu Adhikari’s rising chant hailed her as the personification of her “maa, mati, manush (mother, earth, people)” plank as well as a symbol of development.

The Trinamul chief, who has been demanding President’s rule, changed tack to say she wanted to come to power through manusher (people’s) vote. “We could have put the CPM in a tight spot by harping on our demand for… Article 356 citing the lawlessness. But Trinamul doesn’t need crutches to come to power,” she said. “The CPM will be voted out in the 2011 polls.”

Trinamul sources said Mamata had shed her “obsession” with President’s rule after senior aides convinced her the Centre wouldn’t oblige.

Mamata arrived at Sonachura with Union minister Sisir Adhikari and singer Nachiketa. Entire stretches were lined with Trinamul banners that doubled as road signs.

These stretches had once been dug up to keep out the administration; now pucca roads have come up. Trinamul claims the entire credit for the development, citing how the cycle of violence had stopped after it wrested the area in the rural polls.

Mamata extolled the slain panchayat pradhan’s role. “He built the roads that we all took today,” she said. “He planted 288,000 trees. Have you heard the rhythm inside trees? Do you have any idea of such things?” Mamata asked the absent chief minister, “leader of both Marxists and Maoists”.

She charged the CPM with “global warming” and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with being “ganatantrer shobcheye boro pocketmaar (the biggest pickpocket of democracy)”.

The railway minister promised that a line connecting Singur and Nandigram, twin pillars of her politics, would be complete once a 30km stretch was built. “The railways already have 500 metres. The rest the villagers will give us on their own,” she said, sketching a business model the CPM can only envy.

She ended with a sweeping promise: “Nandigram will be an example of development.”

Perhaps it’s only a coincidence that hours later Sonachura would be hosting a jatra titled Ma Matir Lorai (Battle for Mother and Earth).