Buddha solely responsible for Nandigram firing: Ex-LF minister

Former Left Front minister and Samajwadi Party general secretary Kironmoy Nanda today held former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee 'solely responsible' for the police firing in Nandigram six years ago, which later snowballed into a major political issue.
"Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is solely responsible for ordering the police firing at Nandigram in which 14 farmers were killed in 2007. He did not pay any heed to the suggestions of other Left Front partners," Nanda, who was fisheries minister in the LF government from 1982 to 2011, told a news channel.
Bhattacharjee, he alleged, did not 'bother' to hold any discussion with Left Front constituents on the Nandigram land issue.

"He was well aware that police firing would have adverse impact on the prospects of the Left Front, but he went ahead with his own ideas that proved fatal for it in subsequent assembly elections and a turning point in West Bengal's political history," Nanda said.
"I am afraid Left Front had become the 'zamindari' of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee," he said.
The Nandigram firing was a major issue in the 2011 Assembly polls which saw the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress sweep to power after ousting the LF from its 34-year rule in the state.
To a question, the SP general secretary said his party would contest Raiganj and North Malda parliamentary constituencies alone in the coming Lok Sabha elections.