New Delhi, Sep 22 - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury Tuesday alleged that cabinet ministers in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) were patronising Maoist rebels in West Bengal to target his party offices and cadres.

'The prime minister says the greatest danger to our internal security is Maoist violence, and then you have cabinet ministers patronising them (the rebels),' Yechury told reporters, without naming his party's West Bengal arch rival, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee who is also the railways minister in the UPA government.

A day after hundreds of villagers clashed with armed Maoist rebels in West Bengal's trouble-torn Inayatpur area of West Midnapore district, Yechury claimed that the rebels moved from the spot 'only when central forces' arrived on the scene.

Confirming the late Monday night incident, West Midnapore police superintendent M.K Verma told IANS that additional police contingents had been rushed to the area. He said there was no death.

Yechury alleged the CPI-M offices were being systematically targetted by Maoists patronised by 'cabinet ministers' and claimed that 'more than 60 of our CPI-M members have been killed' in the past few months.