New Delhi, Feb 19: Suggesting a national debate on compulsions of forging electoral alliances by various political parties, the Congress today said tie-ups were linked to power and were not based on ideological commitments. "Compulsions of alliances should be debated. Today wherever there is talk on alliances, it is linked with power. There should be ideological base in it", senior party leader Kapil Sibal told reporters.

Ridiculing "unprincipled" alliances of the BJP-led NDA coalition, he said there was nothing common in them unlike Congress's effort to cobble up a secular combination to defeat communal forces.

Claiming that there were more alliance partners with the Congress, Sibal criticised media hailing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as "master of alliances and a political manipulator".

He said NDA partners are leaving BJP one by one considering the coalition as a "sinking ship".