Alliance should lead to increase in seats: Pranab

As differences still persist over seat-sharing between Cong and Trinamool Congress in WB for the LS elections, state Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee said a tie-up at the top level would not be effective at the grassroots if it did not lead to an increase in seats.

As differences still persist over seat-sharing between Congress and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections, state Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said a tie-up at the top level would not be effective at the grassroots if it did not lead to an increase in seats.

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"Both parties should accept this in principle," Mukherjee, the External Affairs minister, told the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj North Bengal Convention in Siliguri.

Mukherjee's comment came as the state Congress leadership demanded that the party high command should take up with Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee that seats offered to the party, except for the six it holds, were not winnable ones and were in CPI(M) strongholds.

Banerjee had claimed on March 5 that as per the formula arrived during talks with Mukherjee, of the 42 LS seats, the Trinamool would contest 28 and the Congress 14.