Tie-up yet to be sealed, Cong, CPI(M) holding joint protest

Kolkata: Even as the Congress and the CPI-M are yet to formally announce a tie-up for the Assembly poll in West Bengal, the state-level leadership of the two parties seemed to have entered into an alliance mode holding joint local level programmes and protest marches.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury issued a statement recently, asking all democratic and secular forces to join hands in line with the CPI-M's call for cooperation betwee democratic and secular forces in the state to defeat the Trinamool Congress and isolate the BJP.

However, according to TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the Congress high command is yet to make up its mind.
Bandyopadhyay claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi told him that so far there was no news about a possible alliance between her party and the CPI(M)-led Left Front in West Bengal.

The TMC on its part has refused to give any importance to the proposed alliance, saying it would have no impact on the TMC's prospects.

According to Left and Congress leaders, repeated statements and comments by the Trinamool Congress ridiculing the alliance are a sign of their nervousness.

"Why is the TMC so afraid of alliance between Congress and CPI(M)? If at all they are not worried about alliance then why are they making so many statements?" Adhir Chowdhary told PTI.

"The issue of alliance is no longer limited to what CPI-M or Congress leadership is saying. The grassroot level workers of both the parties have forged a pact in their own capacity, and we don't have the capacity to stop this trend. It is spreading from one area to another," Chowdhury said.

The Congress leadership is hopeful that the party high command will soon announce a final decision sooner than later.

TMC supremo and chief Mamata Banerjee had dared the Congress and the CPI-M to make official their alliance and said that people would give them a befitting response in the upcoming Assembly elections.

"I heard that the CPI-M and the Congress are trying to forge an alliance. I want this alliance to be made official. The people will give you a befitting reply," Banerjee had stated.