West Bengal Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen’s flip-flop about links between the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists put the state government in an embarrassing situation on Monday evening. Sen first gave a clean chit to the Trinamool Congress but retracted his stand hours later, issuing a statement through audiovisual channels that the two might have links at the local level.

Earlier in the day, Sen had said: “The government does not have any evidence to suggest that the Trinamool Congress has links with the Maoists.”

Incidentally, this was totally against what the Chief Minister had been persistently saying at public meetings and forums that the Trinamool has links with the Maoists and the two had worked in tandem at Nandigram, Singur and Lalgarh.

When pointed out that the CM had been harping on such links, Sen held his ground saying: “The CM might have got his information from political level but the police have no such information that the Maoists are being sheltered or patronised at the local level.”

Obviously under pressure, on Monday night, Sen issued a correction saying what he wanted to convey was that the Trinamool and the Maoists might have links at the local level in some places.

On the other hand, at a massive public rally here Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee said they would be moving a defamation suit against the CM for clubbing them with the Maoists. “Buddhababu has to furnish evidence for making such comments repeatedly,” she said.

Since the joint operation in Lalgarh in June this year, the CM and the CPM have been blaming the Trinamool for working with the Maoists to oust the CPM from power.