Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee once again made it clear that her party Trinamool Congress would alone fight in Bengal and that there would be no alliance with the Congress which had teamed up with the CPI(M) that had a history of heaping untold torture on the TMC supremo when she was the opposition leader.
Ignoring Akbar Road's efforts to assuage her alleged ruffled feelings Banerjee on Wednesday reiterated her party stance of fighting solo in Bengal. "Despite the fact that I do enjoy personal ties with families (read Congress) I don't have any political relationship with them in Bengal," she said before directly referring to the Congress Party.
"Though the Congress does not have even a single seat in Bengal I had offered them two seats in Malda … but they were asking for a large number of seats which was not possible for us and so I said we will fight it alone in Bengal," the Chief Minister who had earlier denied being engaged in seat-sharing parleys with the Congress said.
Banerjee who was addressing a meeting at Behrampore and had for the past several days held a number of road shows along the same routes traversed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ignoring the national leadership of that party to join Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra for even a few minutes.
Banerjee counted another reason for her not joining cause with the Congress in Bengal even as she said how the tri-colour party had surrendered to the Marxists who had a long history of torture on the Congress and later TMC men.
"The Congress considers the CPI(M) as its master so they are with them here … and I cannot be with a party that takes advice from the communists … I cannot forgive the Marxists … I cannot forget how they have attacked me on several occasions," Banerjee said adding "in Bengal supporting any party other than the TMC would amount to supporting the BJP."