New Delhi, Feb 2: Congress leaders from West Bengal have unanimously rejected the idea of any alliance with Trinamool Congress but remained divided on a tie-up with the Left as party Vice President Rahul Gandhi held consultations with them ahead of Assembly elections in the state this year.
State Party Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that at the meeting state party leaders were totally against having any truck with Trinamool Congress while some pitched for a tie-up with the Left.
The Congress Vice President heard them patiently, telling them that party chief Sonia Gandhi will take a decision on the issue soon.
His refrain was that in the emerging situation Congress is a “determining factor” in West Bengal.
Congress is weighing options in poll-bound West Bengal about which party would help it check BJP’s march in the next Lok Sabha elections.
The AICC has so far remained tight-lipped about the CPI(M)’s overtures to join hands to “save” the state from the ruling TMC. Former West Bengal chief minister and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had recently urged the Congress to join hands with the party.
Congress had contested the last Assembly elections in alliance with Mamata Banerjee’s party which dislodged the CPI(M)-led Left Front after 34 years.
The two parties, however, parted ways in September 2012 after Trinamool Congress walked out of the UPA-II government at the Centre.
The Left is hoping that an alliance with the Congress this time around could queer the pitch for the ruling party, which is almost sure to win the upcoming Assembly elections, a view shared by a section of the Congress too.
Congress is said to be weighing which party can help it prevent BJP’s forward march in the state. Sources said the view of the state unit in this regard will also carry weight.
Mamata’s visit to 10 Janpath on December 9 where she greeted Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her birthday, had set off speculation whether the so-called “birthday diplomacy” could signal the coming together of their parties.
Trinamool had been supportive of the Congress on various issues in the last session of Parliament with several in the Congress seeing it as a move by Mamata to keep the Congress away from the Left in West Bengal.
With the West Bengal assembly elections about three months away, a section of state Congress leaders has been harping on the need for an electoral alliance with the Left Front to take on Trinamool Congress.
The Mamata baiters in Congress also say that the Trinamool Congress shared power at the Centre with the BJP in the past, while the Left have been “good allies” at the Centre during the UPA-I.
