The Congress, which has been prompting her to snap off ties with the BJP, was quick to welcome her statement. “We urge Mamata Banerjee to come back to Congress and fight the CPM jointly. We are sure that if she leads us, we will be able to throw the CPM out of the state,” Manas Bhuina, Congress Legislature Party leader, told The Indian Express. Senior Congress leaders have been in touch with Mamata and her public announcement is expected to accelerate moves towards a political realignment in West Bengal.

Although technically still a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Banerjee abstained from voting in the Presidential elections and her party is believed to have voted for the UPA nominee in the vice-presidential election last month. Several of Mamata’s trusted aides have claimed recently that the alliance with the BJP has become a liability as she is unable to attract Muslim voters.

Saying that she respected A B Vajpayee and had joined the NDA to fight the “CPM atrocities,” Banerjee said that she had never “betrayed the cause of the minorities” even when she was a minister in the NDA government. “The CPM campaigned during the last Lok Sabha elections that our party was involved in the Gujarat riots. We fought against TADA, voted against POTA and had demanded the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the riots,” the Trinamool chief said.

This evoked sharp reaction from the BJP. “Mamata herself knows where she is. We don’t know know her position because she is shunning us. It’s so frustrating,” said Tathagata Roy, former BJP state unit president. Although expected, for the BJP, this could not have come at worse time. Its relations with the Shiv Sena and JD(S) are strained. While the Sena has backed the nuclear deal, contradicting the BJP position, JD(S) which runs a government with BJP support in Karnataka is looking for excuses to part ways.