CPI-M believes in 'Congress-ism' now, says Mamata

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday attacked the Congress and the CPI-M, saying both parties have given up their ideologies and adopted the other`s.

"CPI-M has given up its ideology. It believes in Congress-ism now. Congress has forgotten Nehru, Gandhi, Rajiv, Indira and everyone else. Their slogan now is Marxbad-zindabad," Banerjee said while addressing a workers` meeting in Murshidabad district.

"Had Barkat-da (senior Congress leader ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury) been alive, he would not have allowed Congress-CPM alliance," the Trinamool Congress supremo noted.

Banerjee also hit out at what she described as a "rainbow alliance" of the Bharatiya Janata Paty-Congress-CPI-M.

"They are forming alliance because Congress-CPM-BJP do not have the strength to take on TMC alone. The `rainbow alliance` of Congress-CPM-BJP will not be able to defeat people`s alliance with TMC," she asserted.

"We were the first to expose the tacit friendship between CPM-Congress. That is why we formed Trinamool in 1998. Now it is all out in the open for the public to see," she added.