West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who has indicted the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government for the violence in Nandigram, met CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu on Monday in order to seek his initiative to restore peace.''I am sure that his initiatives will bring back peace in Nandigram,'' the governor said after a 40-minute meeting with the former chief minister at his Salt Lake residence.
''I have come to pay my respects to Basu and I have full confidence in him.''
Asked if he would speak to Chief Minister, Gandhi replied, ''the Chief Minister will talk to me.''
About the CRPF personnel being prevented from entering Nandigram by CPI(M) cadres, he said ''I am sure he (chief minister) will take adequate steps.''
Before the governor's visit, CPI(M) state Secretary Biman Bose had a 30-minute meeting with Basu.
Bose, who returned to Kolkata on Sunday in the midst of the CPI(M) politburo meeting in Delhi, said that he had briefed Basu on the developments in Nandigram and submitted a report to him.
BJP reacts
Conflicting statements from the BJP over the Nandigram issue have lent a whole different angle to the ongoing political turmoil.
While the saffron party president Rajnath Singh, speaking in Bangalore on Monday, demanded the dismissal of the West Bengal government, senior leader and former home minister L K Advani had earlier refused to acknowledge that there is a constitutional breakdown in the state.