leaders of a political party

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s Left Front representatives on Monday walked out of an all-party meeting called in the aftermath of the recent hooch tragedy after the government refused to withdraw an allegation that Marxist activists had conspired to “mix chemicals in liquor” to embarrass the Trinamool Congress regime.The meeting in Speaker Biman Banerjee’s chamber in the state legislative assembly began on a tumultuous note with leader of opposition Surya Kanta Mishra of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) asking Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee to withdraw the allegations he had levelled against the Left Front major on Dec.15 and Dec.16.However, as Chatterjee refused, the CPI-M representatives staged a walk-out, saying both the all-party meeting and the Criminal Investigation Department probe ordered by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have become “meaningless” after the government made the allegation against the opposition party.Later, Mishra — also a CPI-M state secretariat member — alleged that the “canards” were being spread against his party to “protect” the real perpetrators of the tragedy that has left 171 dead. The CPI-M leader also claimed the toll was 187.“We feel the canards were spread on behalf of the government to protect the actual perpetrators of the crime. They said we have done this to deflect public attention from the AMRI fire incident,” he said.“We had asked them to withdraw the allegation, but they did not agree. They commented whatever they have said was ok and they won’t withdraw.” Countering Mishra, Chatterjee accused the CPI-M of enacting a “political drama” as a “strategy.”“They are not in a position to politically combat our stand. Whatever they did was planned. We told them leave alone withdrawing the remarks. We stated as leaders of a political party, we will also not budge an inch from what we said.”“It was their strategy to walk out of the meeting. When they saw they could not get what they wanted by shouting, they went out and informed the media of the ‘revolutionary drama’ they staged during their half-hour stay at the meeting,” Chatterjee said.The minister alleged that during the 34-year Left Front rule, liquor shops were opened one after the other in the districts.