BJP colluded with TMC in driving out car factory from Singur, alleges CPI(M)

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) The CPI(M) on Sunday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches in public rallies in West Bengal during this weekend have delivered nothing new, and accused the BJP of having colluded with the TMC in driving out the Tata Motors car factory from Singur.

CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty asserted that other than the issue of infiltration, there is nothing significant in what Modi has said.

"Rajnath Singh, who was then the BJP president, and the BJP were with Mamata Banerjee during her Singur agitation," he claimed.

Tata Motors shifted its Nano factory in Singur in October 2008, following prolonged anti-farmland acquisition protests helmed by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to Sanand in Gujarat.

The anti-land acquisition protests in Singur and Nandigram played a key role in the downfall of the 34-year long uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front in West Bengal in 2011.

Speaking to PTI over the phone from Kerala, Chakraborty claimed that the BJP has done nothing for the development of industry in West Bengal, accusing it of making hollow noises with regard to the state's industrialisation issue.

"The TMC and the BJP have got caught by the people," the CPI(M) leader said, accusing the two parties of having an understanding.

Chakraborty accused the BJP and the TMC of being "anti-people and anti-industry." Addressing a rally in Singur in Hooghly district, the Prime Minister alleged that the state government had "failed" to cooperate with the Centre on critical security measures, including border fencing.

"The TMC is playing with national security. They are trying to protect infiltrators because they consider them their vote bank," the prime minister claimed.

Accusing the TMC of playing with national security, Modi asserted that illegal immigrants living in the state by forging documents must be identified and sent back to their countries. PTI AMR NN