With Parliamentary elections round the corner, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is on an image makeover mode and is keen to shed her anti-industry stance.

Party sources say her recent criticisim of her ultra-Left allies like the Socialist Unity Centre of India ( SUCI) is the beginning of a change of stand and inching closer to the Congress.

“We will not support the bandh called by the SUCI on January 1,” she said on Tuesday. Though she claimed that “a bandh during the ongoing recession will deeply impact the common man,” party sources say she is now looking to maintain a distance from such parties.

Senior leaders say the Trinamool needs to look forward to a new alliance with a national party during the Lok Sabha polls and the Congress seems to have become her choice.

“Ultra-Left allies are against the Congress. For an alliance with the Congress, she needs to sever her ties with such parties. She is openly criticising the ultra-Left parties, who had stood by her during the agitation in Nandigram and Singur,” said a Trinamool leader.

Recently, Banerjee had also criticised the Maoists. “I do not know why are they doing such things (police station attack in Purulia)? They should join mainstream politics. Such actions are unacceptable.”

Interestingly, the ultra-Left parties had erected 17 of the 21 makeshift stages during her long agitation near the Nano factory. According to party sources, Banerjee’s image suffered a massive dent after the pullout of Nano. Since then she has held several meetings with the Chambers of Commerce.

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