Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said on Sunday that the Congress will strive till the 'very last moment' for a political understanding with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in the coming assembly polls in West Bengal.
"We are ready for a political understanding in seats which will not be contested by the BJP, which fields candidates for only about 30 out of the total 294 constituencies," he said.
Das Munshi's statement comes on the heels of Banerjee's statement on Saturday that a formula could be worked out for putting up a one-to-one contest against the CPI(M).
"It can be an alliance or grand alliance," she had said, while the Congress said that the door was open for further talks.
The parties' stands were expressed after the meeting between Defence Minister and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President Pranab Mukherjee and Mamata Banerjee on the anti-CPI(M) Mahajot (grand alliance) in Kolkata on Saturday.
At the meeting, the Congress had remained firm on its stand of having no alliance, directly or indirectly with the BJP, while Banerjee ruled out any question of her party quitting NDA for a tie-up with the Congress.