Trinamool Congress being wooed by BJP: Prakash Karat

With political manoeuvrings picking up pace for next year's Lok Sabha elections, CPI(M) today said Trinamool Congress was being wooed by BJP.

"The Trinamool Congress has a record of alliance with both BJP and Congress. At present, BJP is wooing TMC," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told PTI in an interview.

He was asked about the possibility of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee striking an alliance with Congress or BJP ahead of or after the general elections.

Karat also asserted that the priority of his party, which was routed by Trinamool Congress after a 34-year rule in West Bengal, "is to regain the support lost and to mobilise all sections of the working people who are suffering under the Trinamool government's misrule."

To questions on the Delhi protests by Left supporters against Banerjee and her cabinet colleague Amit Mitra, he said, "There was no attack whatsoever on Mamata Banerjee. But there was a melee and jostling of the Finance Minister (Mitra), which we have disapproved of and condemned." Terming the protest against the custodial death of SFI leader Sudipta Gupta in Kolkata as "legitimate", he said that using the Delhi incident as a pretext, "there have been systematic and widespread attacks on CPI(M) and Left parties offices, cadres and activists. Over a thousand offices have been damaged or destroyed. They (TMC) did not spare the Presidency University too."