By IANS,
Kolkata : Senior leaders in the West Bengal unit of the Congress party Saturday explored the possibility of an electoral alliance with the state’s principal opposition Trinamool Congress during the Lok Sabha polls, then said this could happen only if it distanced itself from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and “other non-secular parties”.
The 17 member Congress state coordination committee, headed by Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, met and discussed a four-point agenda at the meeting, party sources said.
“Before going into any type of electoral coalition, we must know that the Trinamool Congress has no direct or indirect ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or any other non-secular party,” senior state Congress leader and state Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) working president Pradip Bhattacharya told IANS.
He said the Trinamool Congress would also have to clarify its stand and say that it would not leave the coalition after the Lok Sabha election.
“As far as the Congress is concerned, we have no problem to form any electoral ties with Trinamool Congress or any other secular political force in the state,” he said.
Bhattacharya said the Congress high command would have the complete authority to take the final decision on all electoral alliances.