Advani to lead BJP team to Nandigram

New Delhi, Nov 11 (UNI) Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani will lead a high-level BJP team for an on the spot assessment of violence in Nandigram.

Mr Advani would be proceeding to Kolkata on October 13 along with four other team members after his return to Delhi from Bangalore where he would witness the taking over of the first ever BJP government in South India tomorrow.

BJP president Rajnath Singh had earlier constituted a high-level team led by senior party MP S S Ahluwalia.

Other team members are Karuna Shukla, Ashok Pradhan - both MPs- and party Secretary and former MP Balbir Punj.

Mr Singh condemned the violence let loose on poor inhabitants of Nandigram as ''barbaric act of Central-protected murderers(CPM)''.

BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the party president was expecting the panel to visit the troubled spot very soon and submit its report in three or four days.

Mr Naqvi said it was unfortunate that the Centre was not doing anything to help the displaced poor and protect them from the ''mayhem and murder'' committed by the ''CPM goons''. The inaction by the tottering coalition was only to save itself and earn the sympathy of the Left parties, he alleged.

The killings were happening on-and-off for over nine months and the government was doing nothing to drill sense into the mind of the West Bengal government, he added.

The Centre has the responsibility to protect life, dignity and honour of the poor citizens and they can not adopt selective justice dispensation, he said. The Centre should put down the violence with an iron hand, Mr Naqvi said.

UNI