Sunday, January 8 2006 20:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today (Jan 8,2006) ridiculed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for forging a strategic partnership with the U S, saying it would spell 'doom' for the country.

''Bush is the leader of the world's most organised killer squad. But we (India) is going to them with a begging bowl and so we have to remain silent. This is the Congress that we know. The strategic partnership will bring doom to our country,'' he said at a Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) rally here to launch the party's campaign for the forthcoming Assembly polls.

Alleging that the Centre's decision to reduce offtake quantity of food grains for both APL and BPL families has been taken as a result of the World Bank dictats, he said, ''We cannot support this. We will protest against it both inside and outside Parliament.''

Holding the Congress responsible for the increasing the divide between the rich and the poor, Bhattacharjee reiterated that his party's support to the UPA was not unconditional.

''If they work against the interest of the poor, the working class and the middle class, then we cannot support them,'' he said.

While warning partymen that the Congress was trying to gain a foothold in the state, Bhattacharjee, however, expressed confidence that the beneficiaries of the state's land reforms movement would not allow that to happen.

Enumerating the Left Front government's achievements over the last 28 years, Bhattacharjee said that the state now had a surplus foodgrains, vegetable and fish production. It was also making rapid strides in the manufacturing and IT sectors.