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BJP calls off alliance with Trinamul

The Bharatiya Janata Party-Trinamul Congress electoral alliance in West Bengal reached a virtual dead-end on Wednesday with the former party declaring that it had shut its doors on Mamata Banerjee and was preparing to field candidates in most of the 294 assembly seats in the state.

After weeks of a haze on the status of the alliance, BJP vice-president Kailashpati Mishra told reporters in Calcutta that his party's doors were "now closed" to the Trinamul Congress.

"Yes," Mishra responded, when asked if the BJP had shut its doors on the Trinamul Congress.

He said the party was going ahead with plans to contest all 294 seats in alliance with its partners in the National Democratic Alliance.

Accusing Trinamul chief Banerjee of "stabbing the Vajpayee government in the back, [an act] which is worse than the Tehelka expose", Mishra said no alliance was possible with her unless she declares support to the NDA government at the Centre.

Reflecting a hardening of the BJP's stand, Mishra said there would be no change in the party's stand even if the alliance talks between the Congress and the Trinamul fail.

The BJP is screening a preliminary list of 450 candidates belonging to it and its allies, the Samata Party, Janata Dal United, Biju Janata Dal and Lok Jana Shakti Party, he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress, which is seeking a tie-up with the Trinamul Congress, said the parting of ways between the BJP and Banerjee was "but natural" and hoped that other NDA partners would recognise the reality and the real face of the BJP and follow suit.

PTI

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