Cong to Mamata -- We'll tie up with you but fight BJP

Cong to Mamata -- We'll tie up with you but fight BJP
SANJIV SINHA

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 17: In a significant climbdown from its stand of ``no truck with Trinamool as long as it is part of the NDA'', the central leadership of the Congress now appears willing to sup with Mamata in West Bengal as long as she allows them to fight the BJP in the coming assembly polls.

In fact, the AICC general secretary in charge of West Bengal, Kamal Nath, who is believed to be behind this seat adjustment formula, and several other senior state leaders have sent feelers to Mamata on the possibility of working out an ``informal, one-to-one, local-level electoral understanding'' for the assembly polls in which the BJP will be kept out.

Kamal Nath is believed to have spoken to Mamata on the phone several times in the past two days while Saugata Ray, the party's deputy CLP leader in the state and one of the leading campaigners for a mahajot, met the Trinamool chief, along with other state leaders, last evening.

Ray told The Indian Express today: ``Mamata is willing to have a dialogue with the Congress on a local-level strategic seat adjustment and the AICC has accepted a request made by the party MLAs from West Bengal in this regard...the exact modalities of the talks will be decided shortly.''

Speaking on behalf of the pro-mahajot MLAs, Ray said an unofficial seat adjustment with Mamata was the best option for the party and that there was no doubt in the state unit, even among those who are for an alliance with the Trinamool, that the BJP which is communal has to be opposed.

Kamal Nath gave enough indications of the possibility of a local level tie-up with Mamata when he told this newspaper today that ``the party's electoral strategy in West Bengal would be based on defeating the Left Front and opposing the BJP.'' To a specific question whether the Congress considered the Trinamool anti-secular, he replied in the negative.

Kamal Nath has held a series of meetings over the past couple of days with senior party leaders from the state, including those who are in favour of a mahajot with the Trinamool, in order to prevent a split in the state unit and work out a compromise acceptable to all. And the formula being worked out, say sources, is that the Congress put up candidates against the BJP on all the seats it contests while going in for a strategic electoral adjustment with Mamata in the remaining assembly constituencies.

Party circles have, however, variously interpreted Sonia Gandhi's elucidation of the party's stand in West Bengal. She had told reporters last night that the party would not have any direct or indirect alliance with anti-secular parties but had added that she didn't consider the Trinamool to be anti-secular.

While some believe this is a categorical rejection of any understanding with the Trinamool, others see in it enough scope for an unofficial arrangement on seat adjustment with Mamata even while she is part of the NDA.

Not surprisingly, PCC chief Pranab Muhherjee, whose anti-mahajot stance is well-known, has been kept out of the parleys. Pranab is being despatched to Chennai on Monday to talk to AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha.