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WB Congress wants to join hands with Mamta

West Bengal Congress leaders today said the Communist Party of India-Marxist is the greatest enemy of the people in West Bengal and must be stopped.

"The only way to fight the CPI-M is to ally with the Trinamul Congress of Mamta Banerjee and it must be done because the people of Bengal want to see an end to the tyranny of the Communists," declared former West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Somen Mitra.

He added that neither the Congress nor the Trinamul Congress could fight the Communists on their own.

The Trinamul Congress is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, while the Congress and the CPI-M have been closely allied for the past two years in opposing the BJP.

Congress spokesperson Ajit Jogi was categorical that there could no question of any alliance with the BJP -- directly or indirectly.

However, Somen Mitra was clear that there was a way. "In 1989, the CPI-M and the BJP united under V P Singh to fight Rajiv Gandhi? There is nothing permanent in politics," he said.

Mitra hinted that despite the Trinamul Congress's alliance with the BJP and the Congress-CPI-M informal linkages at the national level, there was every possibility of the Congress tying up with the Trinamul Congress at the state level.

And it is to discuss these possibilities that Mitra and current Bengal PCC president A B A Gani Khan Chaudhary will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi tomorrow.

They also met her today and discussed the electoral defeat of the official Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll.

Mitra emphasised that any tie-up with Mamta Banerjee must occur before the local bodies elections, due in June and July, and which in turn could be the basis for an agreement for the state assembly elections. "It must happen soon and that is why we are meeting Soniaji tomorrow," he said.

Chaudhary said today's meeting went off well. "The meeting was very cordial and despite the reports in the media to the contrary, she was very receptive," said Somen Mitra. "We discussed the reasons for our recent defeat where the official candidate Deb Prasad Roy was defeated."

Earlier, the octogenarian Chaudhary explained the background. "For the Rajya Sabha, a person not too popular..."

He turned to Somen Mitra to ask the name, which the latter whispered into his ears

"...Ah! Deb Prasad Roy was chosen, the members of the legislative assembly voiced their resentment, which I conveyed to the leadership," said the octogenarian Chaudhary, a former railway minister.

Chaudhary said that despite his misgivings, the central high command did not agree to change the name. "I knew right then that there would be trouble and there was... Roy lost the election."

He then said that after the defeat they decided to brief the Congress high command and end the rumours floating about. "We made it clear that the West Bengal unit recognises her as the leader of the party. It is just that Roy was unpopular with the MLAs in Bengal," said Chaudhary.

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