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High Command knows about Congres-TMC tie-up, not me: Adhir

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Press Trust of India Kolkata
West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury feigned ignorance on the possibility of a pre-poll alliance with Trinamool Congress saying it was the party high command in Delhi which will decide.

"I have no information on any alliance," Chowdhury, also the Minister of State for Railways, told reporters at the WBPCC headquarter here.

Asked if the party high command was considering such a move to bolster its prospects in the state, he said, "what they will decide is up to them. But I am sure there will be no alliance."

In 2009, Congress-TMC had jointly contested the Lok Sabha elections, and Congress won six seats from the state, while TMC got 19.
 

In the last year's the panchayat elections, the parties fought on their own, in which gains were reflected for the ruling party in the state while the Congress' fortunes were down.

TMC broke free from the alliance after withdrawing support to the UPA II government in September 2012 objecting to its decisions on FDI in retail, limiting number of subsidised household LPG cylinders and price hike of petro product.

Chowdhury alleged that the TMC government in the state was "impervious" while referring to hundreds of West Bengal School Service Commission eligibility test passouts not being called for interviews.

These candidates have been on hunger strike in Salt Lake in front of the SSC office for the last 19 days.

"The government should have considered their case sympathetically. But it does not feel for the general people and their sufferings," Chowdhury, who is consistently critical of the TMC, even during the alliance days, said.

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First Published: Feb 25 2014 | 4:53 PM IST

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