I believe Azad was murdered: Mamata

She urged the Maoists: “Tell me what you demand. Give a time. Tell me the place and I am ready to initiate the peace process.”

She asked Maoists and tribals in Lalgarh to spell out clearly what they wanted. If they wanted schools,colleges,hospitals,roads,she said,that would be ensured. “Just wait for a few more months and the Marxists will be out of power. I promise to bring development here. If you want jobs,I can set up a railway factory in Lalgarh to provide jobs to the unemployed.”

She said she was ready to visit Dantewada in Chhattisgarh and was ready to talk to the Maoists there too. She invited Swami Agnivesh,Medha Patekar and other national leaders to visit Lalgarh and “areas of strife in West Bengal.”

At the same time,she tried to distance herself from Maoist violence and bloodshed. “I have no support for those Maoists who are killing people. I do have the guts to tell them standing here in Lalgarh that I do not support them. On this historic day of Quit India movement,the people of Lalgarh must take a pledge that terror has to quit Lalgarh,” she said.

The Maoists will have to seek a solution to their problems through Constitutional and democratic means,she said. “We have won battles in Singur and Nandigram through peaceful means. And we can do it in Lalgarh.”

If she was critical of Maoists indulging in the politics of killing,she renewed her demand for withdrawal of joint operations in the region. “It is only helping the CPM,” she said. “The CPM cadres are carrying out raids in CRPF and police fatigues in the region and capturing villages. The leaders at the Centre were being misled and fed wrong information,” Banerjee alleged.

Clearly,with this rally — after 13 months — Banerjee is testing the political waters. In the 42 Assembly seats that cover the Naxal heartland of West Midnapore,Bankura and Purulia,her party has none. Even in the Panchayat elections and the 2009 Lok Sabha where she rode an anti-CPM wave,the Trinamool made hardly a dent here.

With her eyes firmly set on the 2011 Assembly polls,this is one region she can hardly ignore.

She even asked one of the most trusted lieutenants,Subhendu Ahikari,MP from Tamluk,to take on the “Marxist challenge” in CPM bastions Lalgarh,Jhargram and Salboni.

She said she was ready to visit Chhattisgarh and Dantewada suggesting that she was ready to talk to the Maoists there too. She invited Swami Agnivesh,Medha Patekar and other national leaders to visit Lalgarh and “areas of strife in West Bengal.”