Even as the Congress desperately hunts for new allies and woos the estranged ones a day before the counting of votes begins, the news from West Bengal could be unsettling for the Grand Old Party of India.

While CPM general secretary Prakash Karat made it clear that his party would not back a Congress-led alliance at the Centre directly or indirectly, his old allies — the CPI, RSP and All India Forward Bloc — are unanimous in their opinion that such a move will spell doom for the Left Front in West Bengal, where it already fears a battering.

They feel fighting the Congress and the Trinamool in the state and backing a Congress-led dispensation at the Centre at the same time will alienate its supporters.

“We are against the BJP and we will try and stop it from forming the next government. But that does not mean we will support the Congress,” said CPI national council member Gurudas Dasgupta.

CPI state secretary Manjukumar Majumder was also categorical. “Our stand is clear. We will not stand by the BJP and importantly not with the Congress either. We should find an alternate way,” the Communist leaders said, adding the matter would be taken up at his party’s executive council meeting on May 18 and then central committee meeting on May 20-22.

Sources said Left Front constituents like the CPI and the RSP are dead against the idea of supporting the Congress, with a section preferring to sit in the opposition, unlike the CPM.

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