Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh had an hour-long meeting with West Bengal governor MK Narayanan. Ramesh and Narayanan spoke on the Maoist issue. The rural development minister also listened to the governor’s take on Indo-China relations. There were references to NSA and PMO in the conversation as well.

Union finance minister P Chidambaram had been put in charge of the ministry of home affairs by prime minister Manmohan Singh while Sushil Shinde, the union home minister, was on a tour in the United States. Shinde had come under criticism from several quarters for being away for long despite the Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh in which Congress MLA Mahendra Karma and the party’s state unit president, Nand Kumar Patel, were killed along with several others.

The PM’s order on file had put Chidambaram in charge till May 30 or till such time that Shinde assumes charge.

Chidambaram had acted on the attack based on instructions from the PMO, calling for files from the home ministry. Shinde had been briefed by his cabinet colleague on Thursday evening, five days after the incident.