The CPI(M) on Wednesday capitalised on the Trinamool Congress’s change of stance on Maoists and alleged that Mamata Banerjee’s party had a hand in Tuesday’s train hijacking.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) seized the opportunity from a change of position by Railways Minister and Trinamool president Banerjee, who on Wednesday demanded army deployment against the Maoists in the state.

Barely 24 hours earlier, she had said: “There are no Maoists in Bengal. All this is the handiwork of the CPI(M).”

For months she has been demanding the removal of the police and paramilitary forces from the forests of Lalgarh, 160 km south-west of Kolkata.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury indicated in Delhi that the hijacking was planned by the Maoists and Trinamool Congress.

He said the Rajdhani Express, being a fast-moving train, could not have been stopped the way it was done.

“Here you have it stopping very peacefully. Then you have this attack, which is conducted with all the graffiti asking for the release of Maoist leader Chhatradhar Mahato, who everybody knows was a Trinamool leader earlier,” Yechury said.

“All this clearly points out that there is political patronage; otherwise this kind of a thing cannot possibly happen. You (Trinamool) are in political collaboration and providing patronage to the Maoists,” he said.

Yechury said the Prime Minister should explain

how central ministers were demanding that anti-Maoist operations in West Bengal be stopped, when he himself repeatedly described the Maoist violence as the biggest threat to the country’s internal security.