As expected, the possibility of a Congress-Trinamool electoral tie-up in West Bengal ended in a whimper with Bharatiya Janata Party remaining the bone of contention.
A meeting between West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Pranab Mukherjee and Trinamool chief Mamta Banerjee burned oil till close to Saturday midnight making a vain attempt, though both kept doors open for further dialogues.
"The AICC Plenary at Hyderabad has made it clear that we cannot have any link with the BJP, which we consider a communal party. Though we also wish to defeat the ruling Left Front, we cannot think of an alliance with the Trinamool unless it comes out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance," Mukherjee told reporters after the meeting.
The Pradesh Congress Committee, at an executive meeting on January 7, had also decided against having any truck with the BJP and called upon Mamta to lead an opposition alliance without communal forces.
Describing the BJP as a 'friend', Mamta criticised the Congress for trashing the alliance proposal and stuck to her point that the party would not sever ties with the NDA.
"The UPA government at the Centre enjoys Left support. That is why the Congress does not want to antagonise the Communist Party of India-Marxist. But we want to oust the CPI-M from the state and to do that we should not consider the BJP as untouchable," she said.
The Trinamool supremo, however,
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