Jaitley to meet Mamata

With the Congress yet to respond to the Trinamool Congress call to join an anti-CPI(M) grand alliance, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee is likely to finalise seat-sharing with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the West Bengal Assembly elections at a meeting with Arun Jaitley, BJP's election observer for the state.

Jaitley would have a meeting with Banerjee during which the issue of seat sharing between the two parties was likely be finalised, state BJP General Secretary Rahul Sinha said.

He added ahead of his meeting with the TC supremo, Jaitley, after his arrival here tonight, would meet the party's state leadership to discuss the strategy for the elections.

Asked how many seats would the BJP demand from TC, Sinha said the number was not very important. "Our party wants some good seats".

State BJP sources said in the 2001 polls in the state, TC, before severing ties with the BJP, had offered it 39 seats. However, the TC pulled out of the NDA and contested in alliance with the Congress.

The TC chief had on Sunday announced the first list of 53 candidates of which 52 were sitting MLAs. Despite two rounds of meetings with her, the Congress stuck to its stand of joining hands with TC only if it came out of the NDA.