Buddha doesn't want to 'harass' Mamata

 “Maybe our leader wanted to say or convey that nobody is above law. However, if you want my view, I would say that I don’t want Mamata Banerjee to be harassed or disturbed or arrested before elections by digging out old cases against her,” Bhattacherjee said.

Realising that the move by the party could backfire and instead TMC could reap rich harvest from the issue, the CM sought to cap the controversy once for all and shifted the focus of his attack on the “non-performance” of the rail ministry as also the six Union ministers of state belonging to the TMC. During an all-party meeting here on Tuesday, the ruling CPM, in a memorandum urged Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi to execute all the arrest warrants against leaders of the state’s main opposition before the April-May Assembly polls.

The incident which the Marxists had raked up in the memorandum referred to the violence at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district in 1994, when Mamata, as a youth Congress leader, had  lead a demonstration before the district magistrate’s office. She was named an accused in the FIR as the Congress supporters fought a battle with the police, leaving the then DIG (PR) Rachpal Singh injured.