Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee today flayed chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for his controversial statement "Left or death", and urged the people to choose either development or continuation of CPI-M in the next assembly elections.

"What kind of a chief minister is he who tells the people to choose between the Left Front and death? Does he have any respect for democracy? We say, the choice is either development or continuation of the CPI-M," Banerjee told a public rally here.

On November 30 at a Left Front rally, Bhattacharjee had said that the choice before the people of the state was "the Left or death."

"There is no alternative to the Left in West Bengal. If the Left goes, the state would not survive. It is either the Left or death," the chief minister had said.

"I wonder how people of any other state would have reacted had their chief minister said this," Banerjee said.

Referring to the killing of two partymen in police firing in Bardwan district on December one, she warned her party would gherao the district SP if the officer-in-charge of Raina police station was not arrested within 15 days.

The Trinamool Congress chief also demanded the arrest of those responsible for serial attacks on her partymen at Mangalkote since August last.

Banerjee refuted CPI-M allegations of her party's nexus with the Maoists, saying that the ruling party was making such allegations to gain control in the Junglemahal areas.