Mamata in Nandigram. Picture by Pradip Sanyal Anindya Sengupta

Nandigram, Nov. 10: Mamata Banerjee today said she would like to field a family member of a Nandigram “martyr” in the November 30 Assembly bypoll here.

“I would like a member of a family of a Nandigram martyr to be a candidate for the byelection. That would be a real tribute to the martyrs of March 14. Please send me a list of probable candidates so that I can take an early decision,” she told a rally at the Gokulnagar school ground in Nandigram to protest last November’s “CPM recapture”.

The Trinamul Congress chief also rubbished the government’s charge that her party had links with Maoists.

She instead accused the CPM of allowing “safe passage” to six Maoists during the party’s “armed recapture of Nandigram” a year ago.

She did not reveal what information she was basing her charges on, but said: “The CPM is now haunted by the fear of Maoists and is trying to brand us a party having connections with them. But you should know that it was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who gave safe passage to six Maoists to flee Nandigram when the CPM was recapturing the villages here exactly a year ago.

She said she failed “to understand why the state government is not banning Maoist organisations instead of hurling allegations at rivals”.

“If the Trinamul had the support of Maoist organisations, could the CPM have got so many Assembly seats in these three districts (Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore) affected by violence? Our party doesn’t have a single seat there. So why is the CPM talking about our links with Maoists?” she asked.

She also gave the answer: “All this is being done by the CPM to suppress its intra-party feud. Probably, their men have turned Maoists.”

Mamata did not mention the blast on November 2 near Midnapore town that the chief minister escaped narrowly, but criticised the police raids that followed. “Innocent men, women and teenagers are being arrested,” she said.

During the budget session, Bhattacharjee had said the Trinamul had a close association with Maoist outfits. The Trinamul legislature party staged a walkout. Yesterday, at an all-party meeting in Lalgarh, a CPM zonal committee leader allegedly made a similar allegation after which talks to bring back normality in the area broke up.