By IANS,
Kolkata : The developments in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK ended its alliance with Congress after disagreement over seats, would not put any pressure on the Congress in discussions with the Trinamool Congress for the April-May polls in West Bengal, a party leader said Monday.
“There is no such pressure on us. The two scenarios are totally different. Tamil Nadu is not having the same situation like Bengal where the Communist have been ruling the state for 34 years. People of Bengal want a change of guard. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned the discussions are still on,” Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed told IANS over phone.
Ahmed, who has been recently made in-charge of party affairs of West Bengal, said while the primary aim of his party was to end the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led “misrule in the state”, it wanted the tie-up to be based on “dignity” and “honour” as underlined by party general secretary Rahul Gandhi last year.
He said the Congress wanted to join hands with Trinamool in the fight against Bengal’s ruling CPI-M and gift the people of the state a new government.
“An alliance is always based on dignity and respect for all the parties in the alliance. We want to honour and will respect the burning desire of the people of West Bengal who want freedom from left Front misrule,” Ahmed replied when asked about Gandhi’s comments during his previous visit to the state that the Congress would not forge any alliance with the Trinamool if it was not treated with dignity and respect.
He said: “We stand by the statement of Rahul Gandhi. Alliance is always based on respect and honour for each other.”
The Trinamool and the Congress, along with the smaller Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist (SUCI-C), joined hands before the 2009 Lok Sabha election and bagged 26 of the state’s 42 seats, dealing a major blow to the Left Front that has ruled the state since June 1977.
Last year, the Trinamool-Congress alliance broke up after they failed to reach a seat-sharing agreement in the civic elections.
Asked about the seat-sharing formula between Trinamool and Congress, Ahmed exuded confidence that the two parties will come to an amicable settlement through discussions.
“In an alliance, all the parties try to garner as much as seats possible. But when we sit for discussions, we will discuss various aspects such as weak points and strong points of all the parties. But such things cannot be discussed in media,” said Ahmed, who will be visiting the state soon for discussions with the state leadership.
“Through discussions, we will reach an amicable solution and will fight the Left jointly. Because our main aim is to defeat the Left, our goal is the same. We will overcome every issue when the discussion starts,” he said, to the demand of the state Congress leadership for 98 or one-third of the seats in the 294-member assembly.