Prakash Karat, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

Calcutta, Nov. 28: The CPM is not “unnecessarily unnerved” by the prospects of the Union home ministry sending a team to violence-hit Hooghly and other places as demanded by Mamata Banerjee as it does not foresee any “danger” from the Congress-led government now.

“Let the central team come and check the reality. We hope they will do it impartially. Everybody knows who are trying to destablise the state,’’ CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said at the state party headquarters this morning.

The statements of Karat and other CPM leaders suggest that the party understands the compulsions of the Congress to humour the Trinamul Congress, the largest UPA ally.

The comments also reflect the CPM’s eagerness to avoid a confrontation with the Centre, particularly at a time home minister P. Chidambaram and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee are more or less on the same page on anti-Maoist operations.

Karat later joined the CPM state secretariat meeting which discussed the political situation as well as the organisational rectification campaign in the Bengal unit. The state committee will discuss both issues in the presence of Karat from tomorrow for two days.

“We know that the Congress has the compulsion to keep Mamata in good humour as far as possible. It had done so with us when we were supporting the first UPA. Chidambaram may issue some political statements blaming us and asking the state government to curb violence. But we don’t think the Congress is going to oblige Mamata further,” a CPM state secretariat member said.

“If Chidambaram were serious about Mamata’s demands, he would have asked the governor for a report against us. But the Raj Bhavan is not in the loop right now,’’ he added.

The secretariat decided to step up pressure on Chidambaram to launch operations against the Maoists in Jharkhand even before the Assembly polls ended there. If the Centre sends a team, the CPM will furnish detailed “evidence” of Trinamul’s alleged nexus with the guerrillas.

The party leadership will try to strike a balance between administrative compulsions and the growing pressure from the rank and file for a “befitting reply to the Opposition’s murderous attacks”.

“The party has a duty to protect its workers. We will take recourse to all the means that communist parties have used to defend themselves during the worst attacks on them. But we can’t allow a situation which will justify Mamata’s demands for President’s rule,’’ a veteran member of the secretariat said.

Although the CPM secretariat has already ruled out early Assembly polls despite appeals from a section of its leaders and allies, it said state committee members could raise the issue if they wanted.

“There is no difference in the party on the issue. Nevertheless, state committee members are free to raise it,’’ a secretariat member said.