By IANS,
Kolkata : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday accused Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee of indulging in shadow-boxing against West Bengal’s ruling Left Front in the company of the Congress.
Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s media interviews in which he has said that the Congress was open to a post-poll alliance with the Left, BJP national spokesperson S.S. Ahluwalia told reporters here: “It is clear that the Congress cannot do without the Left parties.
“Even Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat has said that his party wanted the Congress to support a Third Front government from outside. So, it is clear that both the Congress and the CPI-M are ready to enter into a wedlock again,” Ahluwalia said.
He said state Congress president Pranab Mukherjee has also categorically pointed out that his party’s alliance with the Trinamool was not based on any pre-condition that Congress will not tie up with the Left.
“With Manmohan Singh saying he would like to see Mamata in his cabinet, should I believe then that she will be a minister in a United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in which the Left will either be a participant or a prop?” asked Ahluwalia, who is also the BJP’s chief whip in the Rajya Sabha.
“It seems it’s all shadow-boxing between the Congress-Trinamool combine and the Left,” he said.
Ahluwalia said his party was not inviting Banerjee to be part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as she was with the Congress now. “We are not offering her any allurement to return to NDA,” he said.
He said people genuinely opposed to the CPI-M or the Congress should not vote for either of the two. “Voting for the Congress means supporting the CPI-M and vice versa,” he added.
Ahluwalia claimed that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party and the NDA the largest group in the elections.