Back
National
Time to welcome Mamata back or have a tie-up: Congress
Special Correspondent
Kolkata: The West Bengal Congress leadership believes “the situation is conducive for negotiations” with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for either “welcoming” her back to the Congress or for a political understanding with her party in the State. The Congress views Ms. Banerjee’s recent remark of “trying to stand on our feet” as a move towards dissociating from the National Democratic Alliance.
Ms. Banerjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday. The former has been silent on whether the talks included a future political tie-up between the two parties.
“I see a political reason behind the meeting and the situation appears favourable for building a bridge between the two parties,” Pradip Bhattacharjee, working president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, told The Hindu on Tuesday.
“There is little doubt that the meeting [between the Prime Minister and Ms. Banerjee] is very significant,” he said.
“She is welcome to return to the Congress or join hands with it to forge a viable anti-Left combine in West Bengal,” Manas Bhunia, leader of the Congress Legislative Party, said.
“Our alliance with the Trinamool Congress is now only on paper,” Rahul Sinha, general secretary of the State unit of the BJP, said. “There was hardly an alliance with that party in the State but it is not we who want to break it,” he said.
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu