Congress turns down Mamta's call for grand alliance

Congress Saturday turned down Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee's call for all anti-Left parties to form a grand alliance to defeat the ruling Left Front in the West Bengal assembly polls.

Significantly, senior leader A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, a strong advocate of such a grand alliance, is not attending the Congress plenary.

• Congress Plenary 2006

The Congress has a well established policy of not having any truck with the communal forces and those who had ties with it, Congress general secretary Ambika Soni told reporters Saturday night, pointing out Trinamool Congress's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

She said the West Bengal Congress Committee, before deciding its poll stand, would take into account the party's basic policy.

She said Congress always stood for strengthening the secular politics in the country and that was why Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave a call in January 2004 for consolidation of secular forces in the country.

That had paid dividends and led to the formation of the United Progressive Alliance government at the centre, she said.