``I wouldn't mind a Congress-led Government at the Centre and we'll not oppose such a move,'' Basu said in an interview to a local daily today. However, he did not elaborate on how this would come about. His statement today follows his dubbing of the BJP leader's allegation that ``Basu offered to collaborate with the Congress to dislodge the Vajpayee Government'' as ``lies'' here yesterday.

Basu, who cautioned the Congress -- again -- about ``correcting'' its economic policies with clear hints that it would only make the party more acceptable to the new anti-BJP political formation, also disclosed that Laloo spoke to him over the phone a few days back.

If Basu's hints are taken at face value, itcan be presumed that Jayalalitha's open attacks on the BJP leadership encouraged and even hastened the new anti-BJP political formation. And the CPI(M)-led Left seems to be pinning its hope on the AIADMK snapping ties with the BJP.

Interestingly, till yesterday the CPI(M) leaders of Bengal kept their final resolution on supporting a Congress-led coalition a guarded secret. Speaking to The Indian Express, Anil Biswas, a Central Committee member and an influential leader, said: ``In (any) such eventuality the Congress would go its own way and we ours.''

However, Biswas dropped a subtle hint when he pointed out that ``during the trust vote we (the Congress and Left) voted against the Vajpayee Government.'' Dismissing any possibility of collusion with the Congress, Biswas said it was part of the BJP's ``disinformation campaign which we needn't have to reply to''.

According to political observers here, the Central team's visit to probe ``the atrocities on the BJP, Trinamool Congress, RSP also thestate Congress workers before and after the just concluded panchayat election'' hastened the process of the CPI(M) choosing to join the anti-BJP campaign. The visit, which Basu took as a personal affront, thus cleared the way for a CPM resolve to take on the `troubled BJP-led Government'.

Incidentally, Basu at a high-level meeting with his ministers here yesterday ``alerted'' them about ``attempts by the Trinamool Congress and BJP camp to amplify the law and order issue'' to find a pretext for harassing the Left Front government.

Basu's letter to the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee urging him to convene an immediate Inter-State Council meeting on Article 355 ``happens to be a constitutional step which will be supplemented by political ones soon,'' CPI(M) sources said.

``And there is no denying the fact that we want this government to go, of course, in a democratic way,'' said Biswas. He however ruled out the possibility of the CPM taking part in ``behind the scene manipulations''.``We don't haveto,'' he asserted.