Bengal politics comes full circle: Opposition

With the TMC government facing stiff resistance over construction of a PGCIL sub-station in South 24 Parganas district, opposition BJP and CPI(M) today claimed that "politics in West Bengal has come full circle" as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too is facing the ire of anti- land acquisition movement.
Banerjee had created history when, riding on anti-land acquisition movement, she had wrested power from Left Front ending its 34-year-old rule in the state.
"Singur and Nandigram has returned to haunt Banerjee. She had said land acquisition should not take place forcefully. However, what we have seen is just the opposite in Bhangar," BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told PTI.

"TMC goons assisted by Bengal police have used violent means to remove farmers from their land leading to deaths and many being injured...Mamata's policy towards poor people and farmers is different from when she was in opposition. It is insensitive when she is in power," he alleged.
"It is unfortunate that Mamata is doing exactly what CPI(M) had done at Singur and Nandigram. Politics in Bengal has come full circle and therefore, TMC is called mirror image of the Left," Singh claimed.
CPI(M), which was in power during the anti-land acquisition movement at Nandigram and Singur, said the "double standards" of TMC now stand exposed.

"In 2007, TMC had helped in flaring up protests at Nandigram and Singur. It used false propaganda to instigate the people. Now in 2107, TMC is in power and it is using brute force to forcibly acquire land in the area. We demand that this forcible land acquisition should immediately stop," a senior CPI(M) leader alleged.
The CPI(M) Politburo in a statement condemned "police repression" at Bhangar and demanded that TMC government should stop using force against the protestors and sit for talks with people to settle the issue.
One person killed and another was injured in a "crossfire" in Bhangor area of yesterday after clashes broke out over construction of a PGCIL grid sub-station in the area.