Mukherjee, who arrived over two hours late for the joint rally, slammed the Left for being the party that gave “credibility” to the BJP.

“In 1988, when the Congress had reduced the BJP to two seats in the Lok Sabha, (CPM veteran) Jyoti Basu held the hands of Atal Behari Vajpayee at a rally near Shahid Mindar and declared that BJP is not a political untouchable, thus giving them political identity. In the very next election they (BJP) bounced back with 90 seats. Now, the Left is saying that BJP is communal,” Mukherjee said.

The senior Congressman said no government that got Left support, including those led by V P Singh, I K Gujral and H D Deve Gowda, lasted more than two years. “The Left wants unrest at the Centre so they can squeeze certain advantages out of the instability. It is clear what the nature of these Leftists is,” he said.

Mukherjee said the Congress-Trinamool seat-sharing alliance was born out of the need to abide by the general consensus of the common man. “This alliance is a people’s alliance and so long as the people are supporting it, this alliance will continue,” he said.

He said Mamata’s credibility as an ally was clear when she did not support the NDA’s Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates in 2007, and abstained from voting during the no-confidence motion over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal in 2008.

“These are clear indications that Mamata is willing to dissociate herself from the NDA. Our experiment with seat-sharing paid off well in the by-elections to Bishnupur (West), Nandigram and Sujapur Assembly seats. We won all three,” Mukherjee said.

Banerjee, on her part, spoke of a “special bond” with Mukherjee. “I am sentimental about Pranabda. He came to my campaign in 1984, when I won for the first time. We will support the Congress at the Centre if it comes to power again. It is necessary to defeat the Left, who are hypocrites and have double standards,” she said.