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Sonia may allow tie-up with Trinamul in Bengal

A Special Correspondent in New Delhi

Sonia Gandhi has hinted that the West Bengal Congress unit may be allowed to have an electoral alliance in order to defeat the Left Front government in the next assembly elections that are due a year later.

West Bengal Congress Committee president A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury made this declaration after his hour-long meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Somen Mitra, former Bengal unit Congress chief, was present at the meeting, along with a host of other state Congress leaders. Also present was party general secretary Prabha Rao, who is in charge of West Bengal. Notable by their absence were Pranab Mukherjee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi.

Later, addressing the media, a happy Somen Mitra said Sonia Gandhi had clearly said that in any alliance, neither the Congress's ideology nor its fight against communal forces must be compromised. "We have assured her that we too have no intention of compromising the Congress ideology or the fight against communal forces. But we impressed upon her that the greatest enemy of the people in West Bengal was the Left Front and that we have to combine to defeat it," he said.

Gandhi's clearance paves the way for the West Bengal unit to tie-up with the Trinamul Congress, headed by Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee, which is part of the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. Incidentally, the Congress and the Left Front had together opposed the NDA in the last general elections.

However, the final details are still not clear, nor has the Congress party officially declared its position on the vexed issue of aligning with the Trinamul Congress and opposing the Left Front, whose largest political party is the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

West Bengal Congress leaders are slated to have another meeting with the party high command later in the day to hammer out the details.

If the deal does go through, it will be a major victory for the Bengal unit and a defeat of sorts for the Congress central leadership, though Somen Mitra played that down. "We have reaffirmed our faith in her (Sonia's) leadership and assured her that the thousands of Congress workers and leaders in that state are with her," he declared.

He quickly added that the defeat of the Congress official candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections was not discussed, nor was the Bengal unit's demand that action be taken against Dasmunshi for providing wrong advice to the high command.

Zakia Maryam adds from Calcutta: Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, who has been summoned by Sonia for a meeting, has left for the Capital. Another Dasmunshi camp leader, Sugata Roy, who is also the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president. has also left for Delhi.

Sonia also met former Bengal chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray at 10 Janpath in the afternoon today. Ray too is among the advocates of a Congress-Trinamul tie-up.

EARLIER REPORT
No 'compromise' in WB: Sonia

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