Kolkata: Maoist leader Kishenji, whom the police suspected to be ill or even dead, on Saturday announced a 48-hour shutdown in five states from May 18 to protest against the Centre’s decision on PSUs.
The shutdown will affect Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
"Maoists will observe bandh on May 18 and May 19 in the five states to protest against the Centre's decision to sell ten per cent government stake in 10 profit-making Public Sector Undertakings," Kishenji told PTI over phone from an undisclosed location.
Kishenji denied he had been injured by security forces in Hatiloth forest near Lalgarh in March. "I have been well and now I am speaking with you as before," he told this correspondent.
Kishenji said the CPI (Maoist) was against handing over 15,000 acre to steel maker POSCO in Orissa and favoured subsidy to the oil companies to keep the rate of petroleum products stable.
He made a slew of other demands, including scrapping the IPL cricket tournament. He accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union ministers P Chidambaram, Praful Patel and Sharad Pawar of being involved in the 'scam' surrounding the popular 20-20 cricket event.
"The government should immediately take action against these accused along with others who are behind the scam involving telecom spectrum allocation," Kishenji said.
The politburo member of CPI(Maoist) said they were against dilution of government stake in state-owned banks "to favour entry of international banks like Morgan Stanley, Citibank and Deutsche Bank".
Kishenji's bandh call and demands come a day after Maoists killed four CPI-M supporters and one party worker in the Naxal stronghold of Jungle Mahal areas in West Bengal.
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