Other States - Orissa

Maoists deny reports of split in party

BHUBANESWAR: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has rubbished the claim made by some miscreants that they had formed a Maoist body called M-2, comprising those who had drifted away from the party.

In a statement, secretary of the Vansadhara Committee of the CPI (Maoist) Sabyasachi Panda said that there was no splinter group in their party called M-2 as there had been no split in the organisation.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal had devised the M-2 formula to create confusion in the minds of the people, Panda said in his statement that was received by some media organisations in an audio-tape on Friday.

The fundamentalist groups and the Bharatiya Janata Party that thrived on communal politics had manufactured the M-2 organisation as their last resort to garner Hindu votes, the Maoist leader alleged.

The new group had claimed in its leaflets that the killing of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati by members of the CPI (Maoist) had led to division in the party.

However, Panda’s statement came in the wake of distribution of pamphlets by the M-2 group giving a call for a day-long bandh in Kandhamal, Gajapati and Ganjam districts on Saturday.

The Maoist leader further alleged that organisations such as the BJP and the RSS had given a bandh call in Kandhamal and nearby districts under the guise of M-2 as they had deferred a bandh on December 25 due to pressure from various quarters.

It was Panda who had claimed before a team of presspersons that members of their party had killed Lakshmanananda Saraswati on August 23 because he was converting both Christians and tribals into Hinduism.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu