Counter TC's campaign against Cong: Pranab

Reflecting new strains in the Congress-Trinamool tie up, Union minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked his party to counter Mamata Banerjee's charge that Congress was responsible for the break up of the alliance for the upcoming civic polls.

"Counter what led to the collapse of the alliance with the Trinamool Congress," Congress Legislative Party leader Manas Bhuniya on Tuesday quoted Mukherjee, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president, as telling party leaders at a meeting to chalk-out the strategy for the civic polls.

Presidents of four Kolkata district units and that of Hooghly and Nadia districts told Mukherjee that the Congress version of the cause that led to the collapse of the alliance should be given to counter Banerjee's sustained campaign against the party.

Bhuniya cited that in 2005, the Congress won 21 of the 141 seats in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls while TC got 42 seats. The Trinamool had run the city civic board from 2000 to 2005 with the support of Congress.

"The Trinamool will realise the need for the Congress in running the civic board," he claimed. The Trinamool and Congress have decided to go it alone in the KMC elections.

TC has offered to Congress 25 of the 141 wards. The state Congress had claimed 51 wards including the ones where it either came first or second in the 2005 KMC polls.

Banerjee has accused the Congress of being responsible for the collapse of the seat-sharing talks. Congress holds the Trinamool's adamant approach responsible for the break up.