The Trinamool Congress and Congress accused the ruling CPM of trying to make Sunday's foundation-laying ceremony of the 10 million tonne mega steel plant at Salboni in West Bengal, a “party affair”.“The CPM is trying to politicise the event and make it a party affair. It shows that the party wants to take sole credit for the establishment of the project in West Midnapore district for narrow political gains,” Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee told the media on Wednesday.Unlike some other industrial units in the state, the project was different as it was being set up with the consensus reached with local people, Banerjee said.Reiterating that industry and agriculture should not serve political ends, she said: “If Tata had not joined hands with the CPM it would have not have had to say 'no' to the Nano project at Singur.”Echoing the same tune, Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Bhuniya, in a letter to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said CPM was trying “to politicise the event by hanging red flags at the venue to reap the harvest in the coming Lok Sabha polls”.He said Bhattacharjee should learn a lesson from Nandigram and Singur and ensure that the steel project come up without hindrance. If this continued, “we will be compelled to stay away from it,” he warned. “We are happy that despite all odds Jindal is setting up the steel plant, he said.“The JSW group is directly purchasing land and even offering equity to the dispossed. It is a model,”he added.
