2014 polls: Trinamool rules out tie-up with Cong

Asked if the Congress would seek an alliance with the Trinamool Congress for the parliamentary elections,PM on his way back from the G20 summit in St. Petersburg Saturday said he did not rule out an alliance with the erstwhile ally in the future.

“In politics there are no permanent friends or enemies,” Singh had said.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradeep Bhattacharya refused to comment. “We had cleared our stand earlier. I don’t know with what perspective did the Prime Minister made such comments. I have nothing to say,” he said.

Rail Minister Adhir Chowdhury and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan,however maintained that the Prime Minister never indicated any possibility of any alliance with the TMC. “The Prime Minister is the head of the government and had stated the eternal truth of politics. We had an alliance with the CPIM and that did not last. Same was with the TMC,” Chowdhury said.

Mannan took a dig at Mukul Roy and said he would have to study more and gain some intellect to comprehend what Manmohan Singh meant.

“He never said the Congress was looking at another alliance with the TMC. He had said that just like there was no last page in history,there was no last word in politics. As a perfect diplomat,he had referred to the past and said that while the party was in alliance with TMC,he had found Mamata extremely good. It is not possible for a person like Mukul Roy to understand the depths of what the PM said,” Mannan said.

Roy,along with top Congress leaders of Tripura who joined TMC,said his arty was “seriously looking into ways to oust CPIM from Tripura”.

“Just like the CPIM had been defeated in West Bengal and Kerala,we have restructured Tripura Pradesh Trinamool Congress to fight the CPIM with new strategies so that in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections they are ousted from Tripura as well,” Roy said while announcing the posts on which former Pradesh Congress leaders have been reinstated.

“Ratan Chakrabarty,who was former Pradesh Congress convenor has been made the chairman; Jahar Saha,the former leader of Opposition of Pradesh Congress is the new vice chairman,and the former president of Pradesh Congress ,Surojit Dutta has been made the president of Tripura Pradesh Trinamool Congress,” he said.