Firing a salvo at Congress for turning down her proposal of joining a grand alliance against CPI-M in the Assembly poll in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that Congress beat a retreat without fighting the CPI(M).
"Congress which is running the UPA government with the support of CPI(M) is afraid of fighting them in the state. That is why the party refused to be a part of the grand alliance and will lead to a split in anti-CPI(M) votes," Banerjee told reporters in her first reaction after Congress announced its candidates for the first two phases of the election on Wednesday.
"Earlier, we dubbed Congress as the B team of CPI(M). Now it has become the main team of CPI(M). Congress is contesting the election in Tamil Nadu in alliance with CPI(M)," she said.
She also added that Congress has the compulsion of not fighting the CPI(M) but Trinamool does not have that compulsion.
She said that during the campaign her party would tell the electorate that voting for Congress would only help the CPI(M). "We have confidence on the voters that they will vote for the real anti-CPI-M forces." The TC supremo said that her party has no objection to the stand of the Congress.
"We have not fielded candidates in seats won by Congress in the last Assembly poll. We have left 93 seats. Our target is to put up a one to one fight. But Congress has put up candidates against us. It is for them to explain this," she said.
{{/usCountry}}"We have not fielded candidates in seats won by Congress in the last Assembly poll. We have left 93 seats. Our target is to put up a one to one fight. But Congress has put up candidates against us. It is for them to explain this," she said.
{{/usCountry}}TC has announced 193 of the 294 seats leaving eight to its smaller partners.
Asked when she would declare the names of the remaining candidates, Banerjee said, "some other parties want to talk to us. We will wait for a day."