Raipur, Mar 29 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and former Chhattisgarh minister Brijmohan Agrawal Friday accused the ruling Congress of supporting Maoists and trying to protect them for its own benefit in the next month's Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Addressing a press conference at BJP office Ekatma Parisar here, Agrawal also accused noted economist Jean Dreze of being a "major link" of urban Maoists.

"Congress has made a mockery of both internal and external security of the country. In Chhattisgarh too, the government has put the security of state at stake.

"It seems the whole state has been left to the mercy of Maoists," he said.

The ruling Congress dismissed the charges as false and said the BJP had failed to solve the naxal problem despite being in power for 15 years.

Recently, the police failed to file a charge sheet in the court against N Venkat Rao alias Nakka Murty, an alleged urban operative of Maoists, within stipulated period of time that facilitated his release on bail, Agrawal said.

This raises doubt against the state government's intention as it was claimed by the police that Rao was a threat to Prime Minister's security, said Agrawal, an MLA.

Murty, a senior technical officer at the Hyderabad- based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), was arrested from Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh in December last year on charges of being anoverground Maoist operative.

He was recently released on bail by a court in Bilaspur.

"Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh spoke in favour of an alleged major link of urban naxals in Jharkhand Jean Dreze, while commenting on the action taken by a state (Jharkhand) government.

"Now Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is saying that his government was ready for talk with naxals. All these things put the state government in dock so far as internal security of the state is concerned," the BJP leader claimed.

"It seems Maoists and their sympathisers have been able to infiltrate the state government. These infiltrators are allegedly influencing the governments policies and ideologies," Agrawal added.

In such a situation, the BJP will demand that the Election Commission (EC) carry out an extensive inquiry to find out whether the Congress is being supported internally by Maoists, the former minister said.

"We will also urge the EC to ensure safety and security of voters as well as party leaders and workers in LWE (naxal) affected areas," Agrawal said.

Replying to a query, Agrawal said, The ruling Congress has been supporting naxals and trying to shield them. They are trying to take advantage of naxals in (Lok Sabha) elections."

Refuting Agrawal's charges, Chhattisgarh Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla said the BJP had failed to contain naxalism during its long 15-year rule and is now levelling false allegations against the ruling party.

"During the 15 years of BJP rule (2003-2018), naxalism flourished and expanded from three development blocks to 14 districts of the state. Congress had to bear the brunt of naxal terror," he said.

Due to negligence of the then BJP government, the Congress had lost its whole generation of leaders in the Jhiram valley naxal attack in Bastar in 2013, Shukla said.

"The BJP failed to contain naxalism and did not draft any strong political, economic, strategic and social policy to deal with the menace.

"It is due to the negligence of BJP that the entire state is suffering with this problem," Shukla claimed.

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