Mamata mocks proposed CPI(M)-Congress alliance

Bengal CM also termed the electoral tie-up as a "mistake"

Mocking Opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress for their efforts to forge an alliance ahead of the Assembly polls in Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday termed the electoral tie-up as a "mistake".

"CPI(M) and Congress are committing a mistake by trying to forge an alliance. If Bharatiya Janata Party is helping them it, too, is committing a mistake. They are sacrificing their ideology in order to forge an alliance.

"If you sacrifice your ideology for the sake of power and money, what is left with you? Nothing is left with you... I am neither Leftist nor Rightist. I am progressive. A person may die but his/her ideology lives on. They (Congress and CPI(M)) are committing a mistake," Banerjee said at TMC's extended general council meeting here.

Criticising CPI(M), she said she had been regularly reading reports of the proposed alliance for the past one month.

"CPI(M) used to call Congress as Bofors Gandhi (during the Bofors scam). They used to criticise Indira Gandhi as fascist, hurl abuses at her. We have seen those days. Now, it is the same CPI(M) which is calling for an alliance with Congress," Mamata said.

The state leadership of both CPI(M) and Congress have been advocating an alliance to take on ruling TMC in the polls in the state.

"I want to tell them (Congress and CPI(M)) the alliance will not have an impact on the prospects of TMC in Bengal. You people won't be able to weaken me or my party. As long as I live, I will live like a lion. I want them to forge an alliance so that they have their own political evaluation," the West Bengal chief minister said.

Yesterday, the CPI(M)-led opposition Left Front formally agreed to discuss the issue of alliance with Congress if it is approached.