Bengal polls in Oct,discussed with Chidambaram: Mamata

Banerjee also pitched for an early Assembly polls while launching her municipal election campaign on Wednesday. She said once the CPM was routed in the civic body elections,early polls would become unavoidable. Is the government in Bengal functioning? It is a rotten government. People of Bengal want the ruling front should step down. This is our political calculation that early election would be inevitable after three months of the civic polls, she added.

Banerjees opponents the Left Front made it an issue and immediately responded by questioning constitutional propriety and provision about such a demand.

However,Trinamool Congress sources said Banerjee wanted to keep the issue alive to demoralise the ruling CPM. She was aware of the fact that in no circumstances,the CPM would step down and recommend early elections. But building more pressure on it would force the CPM to break down. Moreover,a section of Left allies was of the opinion that the government had lost peoples support and should go for early elections,added sources.

Though the Trinamool chief aggressively lambasted the ruling party,she carefully avoided making any harsh remark against her UPA ally the Congress.

The vote of an anti-CPM voter would be spoiled if the voter did not vote the TMC, she said,referring to the triangular contest due to collapse of the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties.

On the seat-sharing issue,the Trinamool manifesto read: there are some people who want to survive keeping their guns on Mamata Banerjees shoulder. They are trying to destabilise the Opposition camp in any manner and give the CPM a passage. There are some people who have become a hidden ally of the CPM, the manifesto read,without referring to the Congress directly.