The Lalgarh school on whose grounds the Trinamul meeting will be organised. (Samir Mondal)

Midnapore/Calcutta, Aug. 4: The spearheads of the Lalgarh movement today said they would attend Mamata Banerjee’s rally there on Monday, gifting the CPM a chance to renew its allegation that the “Trinamul Congress is hand in glove with the Maoists and their allies”.

Trinamul leaders, however, denied any links with the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities and alleged that the CPM was “behind the game to malign” the party.

Making use of Mamata’s move to term the event “apolitical”, People’s Committee chief Manoj Mahato said: “Our people will attend the rally. We want to hear what she has to say about the people of Jungle Mahal.”

Local committee leaders have also “ordered” villagers in Lalgarh and Salboni to attend the meeting.

The leaders are going from house to house in Salboni’s Kalshibhanga, Kalaimuri, Hatilote, Majurkata and Pidrakuli, and Lalgarh’s Bonishol, Lakshmanpur, Amla and Kantapahari, telling villagers they “won’t take no for an answer”.

Farmer Aditya Mahato (name changed) of Kalshibhanga village said committee members had come to his house yesterday. “They told me at least two members of my family would have to attend the rally. They would not take no for an answer. We have no other alternative but to attend.”

Chintamoni Tudu (name changed), 22, of Lakshmanpur said committee leaders had come to her house yesterday and asked her and her husband to be present at the Lalgarh rally. “They ordered us not to go to the field to work and attend the rally instead. We will lose a day’s wages,” she said.

A committee leader in Lalgarh said the outfit would attend as Mamata and social activists such as Medha Patkar and Swami Aginivesh would address the meeting. “They have demanded that the joint forces be withdrawn from Jungle Mahal,” he said.

The committee’s interest in the rally is tricky for Mamata on two counts. First, several of the committee’s activists have been arrested in the recent past in connection with acts of violence, including the Jnaneswari Express sabotage. What is rubbing salt into the party’s wound is the fact that many of the arrested persons have told police how the Maoists had “helped” Trinamul during the Nandigram land war.

Mamata had recently declared that the August 9 rally would be “apolitical”. Sources in the party have said it will not be possible for her to get enough people to attend the meeting as she is yet to gain a foothold in Lalgarh.

A West Midnapore Trinamul secretary had said yesterday that it was not possible to bring truckloads of people from outside and also that committee members could feel at ease joining an apolitical event.

The police said the Maoists had instructed the committee members not on the cops’ “wanted” list to attend the rally. “The Maoists have asked People’s Committee leaders to force villagers to attend the event,” said Manoj Verma, the West Midnapore superintendent of police.

Trinamul had earlier supported the agitation in Lalgarh led by the committee. Last year, Mamata and party leader Partha Chatterjee had held meetings in Lalgarh with committee leaders such as Chhatradhar Mahato and Lalmonhan Tudu.

However, of late, the party has been trying to distance itself from the outfit “because of its close links with the Maoists”.

“We doubt if the People’s Committee is at all asking villagers to attend our rally. It may be a calculated ploy by the CPM to embarrass us and give a bad name to our party,” Chatterjee, the leader of the Opposition, said.

However, Trinamul sources said some of the party’s leaders in West Midnapore were “in touch” with the committee because of its “considerable clout” in Lalgarh and Salboni.

The CPM said it was not surprised at the committee’s announcement. “The People’s Committee is hand in glove with Trinamul. It is quite normal that they would attend the rally and also ask villagers to attend it,” a CPM state committee member said in Calcutta.

The state government has sought permission from the Centre to deploy the CRPF at the rally.

Rebel attack

Maoists yesterday killed one of the founders of a tribal outfit formed in Purulia on the lines of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities. Tapan Das, 30, of Ghatbera, had been expelled from the Adivasi Mulbasi Janasadharaner Committee last year. The police said the Maoists suspected that he was passing on information to the CPM.