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Kamalnath holds talks with Mamata

Meanwhile, new BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy said the party would go on its own if Banerjee did not make an open announcement that her party would support the BJP-led government at the Centre in the Lok Sabha.

In the first high-level contact between the two parties, AICC General Secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kamalnath, who met Banerjee at an undisclosed place in Calcutta on Sunday night, told reporters in Delhi that her break with the BJP and NDA was 'very categoric'.

He said both Congress and Trinamul Congress were at present busy in analysing their strength in each constituency to arrive at an appropriate arrangement. Kamalnath said his meeting was to establish the fact that Trinamul has dissociated with the NDA and BJP based on the clear premise that she had nothing to do with the NDA and BJP.

Parrying questions as to how many seats the Congress was demanding from the Trinamul, Kamalnath said the party wants to secure 'winning seats' as it was not interested in merely 'going through the motion of elections'.

"We are trying to weave through our differences and slowly moving forward. While the final picture (about seat sharing) is hazy, our intention and desire is not hazy," he said, adding Mamata epitomised the anti-Left movement and after many years there was a non-Left front in a position to defeat it.

Kamalnath, who had flown to Calcutta under directions from party president Sonia Gandhi, discounted the possibility of the Congress having any tie up with the Party for Democratic Socialism led by Saifuddin Chaudhary saying the expelled CPI-M leader's 'approach is different'.

Asked about Banerjee not having given any formal letter to President K R Narayanan intimating him about withdrawal of Trinamul's support to the Vajpayee government, he said, "There is no need. She (Mamata) is very categorical about no BJP, no NDA."

Replying to a question, Kamalnath saw little possibility of any meeting between Mamata and Gandhi before the finalisation of a seat sharing arrangement.

Elaborating on the problems faced in seat sharing, he said Banerjee had already announced Trinamul candidates for 228 out of 294 seats and had allotted 39 seats to the BJP with which she had seat adjustment earlier.

"The Tehelka matter has come a little bit late," he said, suggesting if the portal expose had come a bit earlier, Mamata would not have entered into any seat sharing arrangement then with the BJP.

Jana Krishnamurthy said the BJP had identified several constituencies for putting up its own candidates and was awaiting word from Banerjee.

BJP general secretary Narendra Modi told reporters that the ball was in Banerjee's court and her response would reflect her commitment to dislodge the Left Front in the state.

PTI

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