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Mamata quits NDA, political realignment likely
Sunday, 09.09.2007, 11:21pm (GMT-7)

KOLKATA: With Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee hinting at snapping ties with BJP-led NDA, the possibility of a political realignment in West Bengal seems to be on the cards before if pre-term Lok Sabha elections are held.

Trinamool Congress and Congress had an understanding in the recent elections to municipalities and by-poll to some Panchayat seats. ''If she leaves NDA, Congress can have a formal tie-up with it in any future election,'' the state Congress said.

The state Congress leadership, however, wanted the TC chief to clear the air over her party's relationship with NDA before any electoral tie up. ''Mamata said that she is with no one in West Bengal but there is nothing called the Bengal NDA.

Either she is with the NDA or she is not with them. Perhaps she has not decided her party's stand on this point,'' WBPCC Working President Pradip Bhattacharya said. In the event of Trinamool Congress severing ties completely with NDA, a dialogue could take place for future electoral adjustment, he said.

As a national party, Congress could not have any truck with a party having any link with BJP, he said. The TC supremo, while speaking at a madrasa student felicitation programme, had said "we are with no one and trying to stand on our own."

PTI