Buddha says won’t quit,have commitment to people

Regarding poll results,Bhattacharjee said: “It’s only a partial result. It’s not depicting a complete picture.”

The chief minister also admitted that he initially had thought of quitting,owning moral responsibility for the defeat. “But there is one thing called legitimacy,thousands of people voted us to power,” he said. “I have a commitment to them. Well I am not a person who would like to hang on to power. But I thought of those people and stayed back.”

Also,he admitted for the first time that he was ready to put down the agitation launched by Trinamool Congress at Singur that ultimately led to the withdrawal of the Tata Motors’ small car project.

“I had a plan to put down the agitation and I was ready to implement that. But the Tatas said they were not willing to stay here as unwanted guests. We had nothing to do here.”

So far as Railway minister and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s proposal of a railway project at the land at Singur was concerned,Bhattacharjee said he had not yet received any proposal from the railways.

“A project which will be a joint venture of the Centre and the State will come up there. In fact,BHEL is planning to set up a 1,600 MW power project there,” he said.

Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti,in his recent trip to Delhi,has taken up the matter with Union Secretary for Heavy Industries SN Dash.

Bhattacharjee also said that unless a operation like the one at Lalgarh to put down Maoists is taken up at Jharkhand,the state will not achieve a major success in taming Maoists.

“The biggest training camp in India for the Maoists is located at Dalma Hills,” he said. “Unless an operation is launched at Jharkhand to demolish that infrastructure we will not be successful here.”

Accusing the Trinamool Congress of being hand in glove with Maoists once again,he said: “We gave definite intelligence proof that the two are in close touch. Maybe the Trinamool Congress is doing it for short-term gains but in the long run,they are bringing a bigger danger.”