
West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who has indicted the Left Front Government for the violence in Nandigram, met CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu on Monday to seek his initiative to restore peace in the troubled area.
Emerging from a 40-minute meeting with Jyoti Basu at his Sal Lake home, Governor Gandhi told reporters: 8220;I am sure that his initiatives will bring back peace in Nandigram.8221;
8220;I have come to pay my respects to Basu and I have full confidence in him.8221; Asked if he would speak to the Chief Minister, Gandhi replied, 8220;The Chief Minister will talk to me.8221;
Told that CRPF personnel were being denied entry into Nandigram by CPM cadres, he said, 8220;I am sure he Chief Minister will take adequate steps.8221;
Before the Governor8217;s visit, CPM state secretary Biman Bose had a 30-minute meeting with Basu. Bose, who returned to Kolkata on Sunday in the midst of the CPM Politburo meeting in Delhi, said that he had briefed Basu on the developments in Nandigram and submitted a report to him.
As a bandh called by opposition parties hit Kolkata and towns across the state, West Bengal IGP Law and Order Raj Kanojia said that the CRPF had entered Nandigram, but he could not specify their number.
Earlier, CRPF Director General S I S Ahmed met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the Writers8217; Buildings in Kolkata.
Three companies of CRPF had to return on Sunday night to Tamluk, the district headquarters, after being stopped by CPM cadres.