NEW DELHI, SEPT 18: Yet another report on West Bengal's `trouble-torn' Midnapore district is on its way. This time from none less than the new BJP chief, Bangaru Laxman, who will visit West Bengal for the first time on September 23.Laxman will be submitting his report after touring Midnapore for an entire day. He will also ``take stock'' of the volatile political situation in the ``disturbed areas''.Laxman's trip, following on the heels of Defence Minister George Fernandes's visit on a similar agenda, has drawn strong reactions from Left parties. Calling it another ploy to keep a ``dead issue'' alive in the hope of electoral gains for Union Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M) leaders said: ``The proliferation of reports from their side is intended to create confusion. They (the BJP-Trinamool combine) are using the Central Government machinery to covertly interfere with the state's law and order.''The Left even charged that the frequent visits were actually getting in the way of bringing peace to the troubled areas. ``What are they trying to achieve by these visits?'' senior CPI(M) leaders said today. ``Who knows Bangaru Laxman in a village in West Bengal? He has no role to play, apart from keeping Mamata from doing something desperate, which might put the BJP-led Government in trouble.''However, Laxman's visit is expected to achieve two goals. Though primarily it is meant to keep the issue of ``political killings'' in West Bengal alive in a situation where the Centre can do precious little, Laxman's visit would also cement the fissures in the BJP state unit.One of the factions opposed to state BJP chief Tapan Sikdar recently floated a separate forum (much like the one Madanlal Khurana floated in Delhi) to fight the Left Front's ``misrule'' to share some of the limelight Mamata has been hogging through her much-hyped anti-Basu crusade. The BJP has been mostly playing second fiddle.
