Kolkata: The Congress has expressed
confidence that the party`s alliance with the Trinamool
Congress in West Bengal will strengthen its stand and would
help oust CPI(M) from power.
"The situation in Bihar and West Bengal is quite
different. In the last Lok Sabha election, the Congress and
the Trinamool Congress fought together and the Left Front was
marginalised to a great extent," WBPCC spokesman Sukhendu
Sekhar Roy, known to be close to Union Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee Roy, told reporters.
"The mood of the people in West Bengal is for change
and the alliance between the two parties is a necessity to
effect the change. It is the Congress which will be
strengthened in case of an alliance with Trinamool Congress,"
he said.
He said that it was the declared policy of the Congress
high command to fight the ruling Left Front in alliance and
under the leadership of the Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee.
"As far as my knowledge goes there is no change in that
situation."
WBPCC president Manas, Bhunia, however, said, "We have
already said that we will have an alliance with the Trinamool
Congress, but not at the cost of the dignity and prestige of
the Congress."
Referring to the seat-adjustment in the 2009 Lok Sabha
elections which he hinted was clinched at Trinamool Congress
chief Mamata Banerjee`s terms, he said, "We had left 28 of the
42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal to the Trinamool Congress. It is
the turn of the Trinamool Congress now to reciprocate with
prestige and dignity."
He dismissed the failure of an understanding between
the two parties for the civic elections held earlier this
year.
"Assembly elections are not fought on the same lines as
civic polls. The issues are different."
Another PCC spokesman Arunava Ghosh, who is known in
political circles as a detractor of the TC chief said, "An
alliance is necessary to remove the CPI(M), but the fate of
the alliance will depend on Mamata Banerjee."
On the other hand, senior Trinamool Congress leader
and union minister of state for rural development Sisir
Adhikari said if the Congress wanted to be politically
relevant in West Bengal, "it must form an alliance with us. It
must accept Mamata Banerjee as the leader."
On the Congress`s call for an alliance with self-respect,
he said that a party which did not have a significant
percentage of votes in the state brought up the issue of self
respect at the time of elections.
PTI
