Left minister slams Buddha, Nirupam

West Bengal Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, who was earlier critical of the land acquisition policy of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government, on Friday slammed the outgoing chief minister and his industry minister Nirupam Sen for pursuing a path that led to the downfall of the government.

“They cannot catch a small snake and had set out to catch cobra,” said Mollah in an unforgiving language, ridiculing the industrialization policy of Bhattacharjee and Sen.

Mollah is one of the few ministers in the Left Front who could manage to win the elections- Canning East constituency in South 24 Parganas district- while the party’s top shots like Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Nirupam Sen lost the polls themselves.

Mollah said the wrong policies of the government on land acquisition led to the downfall.

Riding on its support to the farmers of Singur and Nandigram, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee swept the assembly polls in West Bengal on Friday, ending 34 years of Left Front rule in the state.

The Trinamool-Congress combine won 225 seats in the 294 member assembly while the Left Front managed only 63 from its 235 in 2006.