Accusing the Centre of lacking a “comprehensive action plan” to tackle the ultras, Singh, who is in Kolkata said: “There should not be any problem if the Maoists are prepared for a dialogue by laying down arms. But there should not be any pre-condition for talks.”

Asked whether BJP would accept the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as mediator in the event of a dialogue with the Maoists, he said: “There is no proposal as such before us. If there is a proposal before the government it should consider the matter. Mamata Banerjee is a part of the government and a member of the Union Cabinet.”

The BJP, however, will support the government in any step it took to deal with the Maoist menace, he added.

“The government should accept the Naxalite challenge. The BJP will give support to any step the government takes in this regard,” he said.

Singh also slammed the Left Front government’s handling of the problem in West Bengal saying, “Had it ensured proper administrative steps to deal with the problem right from the beginning, the situation would not have come to such a pass.”

Alleging that there was no administration in Maoist-hit areas in the state, he said: “It is ridiculous that such a situation has arisen though there is a government of only one party that is of CPM for almost 35 years. But the fact remains that Naxalism has seen a rapid growth in West Bengal. The CPM government cannot be absolved of blame for this.”

‘UPA intentionally using saffron terror term’
Training the guns on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram over his “saffron terror” remark, Rajnath Singh said: “This is a well thought ploy of the Congress government to demoralise nationalist elements. There are rumours that they want to involve the RSS in this.” Singh said that the home minister has committed a blunder, and if has used the term in English unintentionally then he should take his words back.

“There could be some