One of the much talked-about young revolutionary leaders of the undivided CPI(ML) in Bengal in the seventies and now with the PCC CPI(ML), a smaller faction of the fractured party, Santosh Rana has emerged as a major critic of the CPI (Maoist) in the wake of the Lalgarh movement. For him, the popular uprising of the tribal and non-tribal poor against police repression in Junglemahal of West Bengal bordering Jharkhand had much potential for democratizing the local and regional polity with far-reaching ramifications. But the opportunities were lost once the Maoists aped the CPI(M) in imposing their one-party rule and killing opponents irrespective of their class background.