"Trinamool, BJP Merely Cunning Conspirators Now Divided": Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

The environment of communal amity which was the pride of Bengal has been turned poisonous, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said in a statement.

The "silence of the graveyard" has engulfed Nandigram and Singur in the past decade, West Bengal's former communist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said on the eve of the state's second phase of Assembly polling. The ailing 77-year-old also referred to the ongoing vicious standoff between the ruling Trinamool and the opposition BJP as former 'cunning conspirators' now divided and slinging mud at each other. Around 15 years ago, the Trinamool's Nandigram and Singur movements against forcible land acquisition for industrialisation eventually cost Mr Bhattacharjee his job and the communists their 34-year-old government. These also catapulted Mamata Banerjee into the centre stage of West Bengal politics, installing her in the Chief Minister's chair in 2011. Nandigram goes to the polls on April 1 with Ms Banerjee locked in battle with BJP poster boy Suvendu Adhikari, her former minister. The two main rivals, the BJP and the Trinamool, have been involved in a months-long vicious campaign against each other. "The silence of the graveyard has engulfed Nandigram and Singur. The conspirators of that cunning drama are divided today and slinging mud at each other," Mr Bhattacharjee said in a statement shared by his party on Monday, condemning the communal politics of both the BJP and Trinamool.