Hinting that the Trinamool Congress may have had an implicit role to play in the Rajdhani train siege, the CPM on Thursday asked the Prime Minister to explain why ministers from the party were allowed to continue in the Cabinet despite the “political patronage and protection” they gave to the Maoists.

The CPM claimed that the link between TMC and the Maoists had come out in the open after the party asked for the withdrawal of the central forces from Lalgarh, and were further exposed by Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to condemn the siege of the Rajdhani Express train by Left-wing insurgents.

“Ironically, such blatant support for the Maoists and their terrorist activities comes from a party that is in that very Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister who on repeated occasions had stated that Maoist violence constitutes the gravest threat to India’s internal security,” CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in an editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece People’s Democracy.

Adding to this, claimed Yechury, is Trinamool leader and Union Minister Sisir Adhikari’s “boast” to the media that he had “prior knowledge that such an attack would take place”. The Prime Minister “needs to probe the source of such ‘knowledge’ by his ministerial colleague and inform the nation,” he said.

Yechury said there is a growing unrest amongst Railway employees as they feel that adequate security has not been provided to protect them from growing Maoist attacks on railway stations, tracks and other railway facilities. “The situation will not improve, they feel, as long as the Trinamool chief is the Railway Minister because of the close political collaboration between them,” he said. “These are issues that warrant a serious probe.”