With an eye on Muslims who form 27 per cent of the total electorate in the state, the Trinamool Congress has seized upon the disclosure made by BJP leader L K Advani that he had met Marxist veteran Jyoti Basu in 1989, before he set out for his famous rath yatra.

Following the revelation made by Advani, while the CPM has gone on the back foot trying to explain it away — Basu himself has admitted to the meeting saying it was to prevent communal riots - Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has raised the pitch telling voters that the Left has forged a secret understanding with the BJP.

Muslim votes have showed some signs of drifting towards the Trinamool, which trounced the CPM in the recent panchayat elections. Though Banerjee herself was part of the BJP-led NDA, she is now missing no opportunity to tell voters that she was and is against BJP’s Hindutva agenda. With a reference to the post-Godhra riots, the Trinamool chief said she “had never supported communal riots whether I was in the NDA or out of it”.

Banerjee has already asked her party candidates to highlight the Advani-Basu meeting during campaigns. “The CPM and the BJP have secretly tied up for the Lok Sabha elections. Excerpts from Advani’s My Country My Life should be referred to as proof for the backdoor tie-up,” Banerjee recently told her party candidates.

Reacting to Basu’s statement that he had met Advani at the latter’s residence only to prevent communal tension, Banerjee said, “If Basu was so eager to stop the yatra, why did he allow Advani to cross Bengal? It was Lalu Prasad Yadav who arrested Advani.”