Conflicting signals: After Buddhadeb calls for alliance with Congress, Brinda Karat rejects any such possibility

CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat on Monday said there was no possibility of her party forging an alliance with Congress in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.

"Whatever is being said about an electoral alliance with Congress in West Bengal is speculation and there is no truth in it. There is no chance of going with Congress in Bengal," Karat told reporters here. She, however, said the CPI(M) politburo would take a final call on the issue of alliance in five states going to polls at an appropriate time.

Virtually kicking off the party's poll campaign in West Bengal, senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had on Saturday last sent out a message to Congress and other Left parties to join hands with Left Front to oust the ruling Trinamool Congress. Karat, who reached here in the morning to attend a seminar on Jharia Mines Fire Displaced, also criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party for "mishandling" the recent Malda flare-up.

Banerjee, BJP and RSS are destroying the communal harmony established by CPI(M) in Bengal for political gains, she alleged. The CPI(M) leader held the BJP government responsible for the impasse on the GST Bill in Parliament. "It is the responsibility of the government to run Parliament keeping opposition in confidence," she said.

She also demanded that the Prime Minister should clear his stand on the Ram temple issue being raised by "several BJP leaders". "The PM's silence on the issue confirms his tacit support to them," she alleged.