State govt's responsibility to avert Naxal attacks: Cong

Congress today rejected BJP's contention that incidents like the Naxal attack on security personnel in Chhattisgarh do occur ahead of elections, insisting that it is the primary responsibility of the state government to avert them.
"It is completely unacceptable to suggest that such things can happen during elections. Writ of the government should run strong and any failure is unacceptable," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here.
Singhvi's remarks came close on the heels of BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad terming the Naxal attack as an attempt to "influence" the Lok Sabha polls.
Terming Naxalism as a national problem, Prasad had said earlier in the day, "...Naxals carry out such strikes before elections. Before Assembly elections, they carried out a similar attack to influence the polls but they failed. Again they have carried out an attack when Lok Sabha polls have been announced. But they will fail this time too."

In a brazen daytime attack, Maoists ambushed a security patrol killing 16 people including 11 of the CRPF in the worst-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, a BJP-ruled state.