We can stand alone, says Mamata

KOLKATA, JULY 4. A day after jettisoning the Congress as her party's ally, the Trinamool Congress chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, today justified it by stating that her party was not weak and could stand alone.

``They (Congress) violated the alliance with us as they did not want it. ...But we are not weak and we can stand alone,'' she told newspersons at her residence here.

Asked to comment on the Congress leader, Mr. Kamal Nath's reported demand in Hyderabad for a clarification on her party's stand on the alliance, Ms. Banerjee was dismissive, saying, ``We are not bound to make any such statement.''

``It is Congress which has violated the alliance. It put up candidates in the Assembly elections against official Trinamool contestants in some places.

Is it fair that these people are now returning to Congress under the leadership of Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and Mr. Somen Mitra?,'' she asked.

She alleged that the Congress had earlier advocated that it was not in favour of continuing the alliance with Trinamool. ``But I want to assert that we are not weak and can stand alone.''

Meanwhile, the Pradesh Congress leadership today categorically denied snapping of ties with the Trinamool and urged Ms. Banerjee to clarify her stand to remove the present confusion. Strongly reacting to what he called ``conflicting'' newspaper reports about her decision to snap the ties, the WBPCC general secretary, Mr. Pradeep Bhattacharya, said ``on our part we still believe in the coalition and would even like to see that it continues as long as the Trinamool does not join the National Democratic Alliance once again.

Moreover, we were not informed by the Trinamool leadership at any point of time that they are snapping the ties with the Congress,'' he said.

Charge against Centre

The Trinamool's Chief Whip in Parliament, Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, said in New Delhi that though the Centre had acted so angrily following the arrest of two Union Ministers in Tamil Nadu, it had failed to react when Ms. Banerjee as a Central Minister was arrested in Kolkata in July 1993.

In a letter to the Prime Minister sent on July one, he, however, assured his party's full support to any decision that may be taken ``against this undemocratic action of the Tamil Nadu Government.'' He said the manner of arrest of the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi ``was not only inhuman in nature'' but appeared to be undemocratic. He said all political parties were united in condemning this ``most shocking act. ''

- PTI, UNI

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