Buddhadeb confirms receiving Chidambaram?s letter

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday confirmed receipt of a letter from Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in which the latter has purportedly asked Bhattacharjee to rein in armed cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M).

?Chithi payechi (I have got the letter),? the Chief Minister confirmed, without commenting on the content.

He said the state government will give its reply on Tuesday.

CPI-M general secretary Biman Basu also confirmed that the Union minister?s letter has reached state secretariat Writers’ Building here.

Saying that the letter reached on Monday, Basu pointed that the contents were out before it.

He called the content of letter finding way to media ‘obnoxious’ and ‘unthinkable’.

?Media knew the content. This is dangerous, a letter from Union Home minister to a chief minister should not be leaked to press beforehand,? Basu said.

He alleged that the letter is politically motivated.

Reacting to Mamata Banerjee?s Trinamool Congress? (TMC) charge that 96 party workers have been killed, Basu said the 96 TMC workers killed are not accounted.

Claiming that much more Communist members have been killed, he also gave names and details of several cadres.

Union minister Chidambaram, in the letter, has reportedly asked Bhattacharyya that the armed cadres of ?Harmad Vahini? be ?immediately disarmed and demobilised?.

“If these armed cadres continue to take upon themselves the duties of maintaining law and order, I wonder what is the role of security forces, specially central para military forces which have been deployed at the request of the state government?” Chidambaram had said in the letter.

The letter was in response to Banerjee?s pressure on the government to act against the CPI-M government in West Bengal.

Banerjee, whose TMC is a vital ally for the Congress at the Centre, has alleged before the prime minister that the CPI-M government was misusing the central security forces to act against her party workers.

Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, siding with Banerjee, on Sunday asked Bhattacharjee to reply to the letter.

?The Home Minister has written to the state government. He has fulfilled his responsibility. Now the state government should fulfill its responsibility and reply by acknowledging receipt of the letter,? he said.