A day after Mamata Banerjee dared the left and the Congress to formally declare an "unholy alliance", her party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay on Sunday quoted Congress president Sonia Gandhi as saying she had not yet received any formal alliance offer from any group.
Bandopadhyay said "I met Sonia Gandhi in lok Sabha and was told" by the Congress president with whom he enjoys a good personal rapport that "she has not received any formal proposal from any outfit and that she has no idea of any kind of alliance taking place."
The Trinamool MP's statement on his claimed quote came barely hours after his party chief dared the CPI(M) and the Congress to form an open alliance. "If you have courage why don't you form the unholy alliance formallyIJ" she asked apparently directing her speech at the two parties.
The development comes when the subaltern section of both Congress and left parties are raising their voices for a tie-up sooner than later.
The pressure is so much that the districts are witnessing joint poll rallies and wall-graffiti depicting how the Congress' 'hand' is holding the 'hammer and sickle' of the CPI(M).
Even the Congress leaders including Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury claimed publicly that "we cannot resist the people. The pressure from the grassroot workers is so much that we have to concede that irrespective of what the leadership thinks the alliance has already taken place."
All these amid questions whether the two traditional adversaries would at all go for a formal alliance, (or have seat-adjustments) at a time when they are pitched against each other in States like Kerala and Tripura.
The opposition leaders promptly dismissed the claim made by Trinamool leaders who are "trembling at the prospect of opposition unity." This was a ploy to confuse the voters, they said.
Former CPI(M) MP Sujan Chakrabarty wondered "how is Sudip Bandopadhyay concerned with the alliance. Shouldn't they be content with their performance and expect a comfortable winIJ"
He also reminded how Rahul Gandhi had told PCC leaders that "Mamata Banerjee had warned him against making any alliance with the left."
Political experts said the statements of the Chief Minister (by asking them to form formal alliance) and Bandopadhyay were not wholly unrelated. While the Chief Minister was trying to expose the left and Congress in Kerala where they are directly pitted against each other Bandopadhyay was confusing the voters if at all the Congress and the left chose to limit their camaraderie to seat-adjustment only.
