Bengal ruling party trying to revitalise CPI-M: BJP

Kolkata, May 23 :  West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday described the police baton charge on Left Front supporters as the ruling Trinamool Congress's "special efforts to supply oxygen to the (LF spearhead) CPI-M".

Over 100 Left Front supporters, including many of their top leaders, sustained injuries as police resorted to baton charge and burst tear gas shells during a "March to Nabanna (state secretariat)" protest programme called by 11 Left peasant organisations on Monday.

Ghosh, however, said it was only a Trinamool ploy to "revilatise" the Left and prevent the rise of the BJP as the main opposition party.

"I have said earlier that the Trinamool is making special efforts to supply Oxygen to the CPI-M, be it the baton charge on their workers or by running a massive campaign against the Left parties' event yesterday," Ghosh claimed.

"In politics, negative campaign becomes positive in people's mind. Giving prominence to yesterday's (Monday) event and government's attempt to make it look big, is a proof of that," he said.

The BJP leader, however, condemned the police atrocities on a section of the media who were covering Monday's protest programme.

"The way in which the reporters were inhumanly attacked and beaten up is unthinkable and indescribable," Ghosh said.

"Two things are of major concern. It is not impossible that the media would be absent in a democracy. On the other hand, if the ruling party wants that the media would work the way they want, that is also not possible," he added.