West Bengal: Cong rules out poll alliance with Trinamool

Congress Saturday ruled out an electoral alliance with Trinamool Congress in the coming West Bengal assembly polls unless it severed ties with the National Democratic Alliance.

A resolution adopted at a meeting of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee's extended executive committee, presided over by its president Pranab Mukherjee, said it believes an electoral alliance with Trinamool Congress is possible if it comes out of the National Democratic Alliance and takes the lead in fulfilling the aspirations of the "secular, democratic and progressive forces" in the state.

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Briefing reporters at the party office after the six-hour meeting, Mukherjee said there was an objective condition in West Bengal to have a credible alternative to the Left Front.

"But that alternative must be a progressive, secular democratic front. Without this, no alternative is possible. We will not have any objection if Mamta Banerjee gives the leadership of a progressive, secular democratic front," he said.

Mukherjee called for the formation of a "progressive, secular democratic" front consisting of all non-Left Front parties except Bharatiya Janata Party and other "communal parties".