Maoist tribals from Bengal districts converged in Kolkata for a show of strength on Friday. They virtually held the administration to ransom by blockading several roads and daring the police to take action.
The war drums of the Maoist threat in Lalgarh boomed on the streets of Kolkata on Friday as thousands of tribal people brandishing axes, swords and bows and arrows put up an unprecedented show of strength less than a kilometer from the state's seat of power in Writers' Buildings. The six-hour-long rally, road blockades and meeting brought Kolkata to a halt and rattled everyone who had dismissed the Maoist domination of Lalgarh as an isolated feature in a single block of West Midnapore.
The Maoist challenge, in open defiance of the administration, comes less than a week before Bengal goes to polls. It was a day when the Maoist grip was felt equally in Jangalkhand and the bustling metropolis of Kolkata.
