New Delhi, December 27: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said Sunday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was going to start a dialogue with “all stakeholders” and political parties to reach a consensus on the issue of Telangana.
Bhattacharjee, who was here to attend the politburo meeting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), met the prime minister to know what the government was doing to check the unrest in Andhra Pradesh.
He said he told the prime minister that any decision on Telangana would have wide-ranging impact in West Bengal as there are demands for breaking up the state into smaller states: Gorkhaland, Kamtapur and Greater Coochbehar.
The chief minister said he “gathered” from the prime minister that his “government is seriously trying to hold consultations with all parties in the state as well as at the national level”.
He said he would speak to the state’s Principal Secretary (Environment) Madan Lal Meena on his reported telephonic conversation with Maoist leader Kishenji.
Media reports said Kishenji had a telephonic conversation with Meena about polluting mines.
Admitting that it was difficult to catch the most wanted Maoist leader, who has telephonic conversation with “hundreds of journalists every day”, he said the security forces could only identify the mobile tower to know about the location of Kishenji.
–Agencies