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Mamata blasts Congress for ties with CPI-M

Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee today ruled out the possibility of her returning to the Congress saying it has entered into a ''joint venture'' with the Communist Party of India-Marxist to grab power at the Centre at any cost.

Addressing the media in New Delhi, Banerjee said the CPI-M had always maintained a ''secret alliance'' with some Congress leaders at the Centre.

When Indira Gandhi was in power, the agreement was between the Congress and the Communist Party of India. After Indira Gandhi's death, the deal had been between the Congress and the CPI-M. The moment she came to know about the secret understanding between the Congress and the CPI-M, she resigned from the P V Narasimha Rao government, Banerjee added.

Asked whether the Congress with the help of Left parties would be able to form a government at the Centre, she said they would not succeed in ''toppling'' the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government as they lacked numerical strength in the Lok Sabha.

Banerjee wondered how the Congress, which had been ''wiped out in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and some other states, could dare to form a government at the Centre.

Many Congress leaders in West Bengal and other states were not happy with the warming up of relations with the CPI-M. Some Congress MLAs had pledged their support to her to continue the struggle against the misrule in her state, she added.

She was going ahead with the formation of a new front with the help of those who had left the Congress and other like-minded people. The Manipur Congress, the Loktantrik Congress, former Union minister Suresh Kalmadi and Dinesh Trivedi, MP, and many others had agreed to hold a meeting on December 10 to explore the possibility to launch a new front, she said.

She said although the government had initiated some measures to check price rise she was not fully satisfied with the action in this regard and her party would maintain a vigil on its performance on the issue.

As for the Ayodhya issue, she said there was nothing wrong in her party observing a black day on December 6 to condemn the demolition of the Babri Masjid. She and her supporters had been observing a black day on December 6 to mark the incident since 1993, Banerjee said.

In response to a question, she said a team from her party visited the disputed area at Ayodhya and found no construction activity was in progress there. The team, however, saw construction work in some private workshops outside the disputed area, she added.

She also said that she is writing a book on the performance of her one-year-old party, which will be released in December this year.

UNI

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