Congress downplays Mamata Banerjee's fresh ultimatum of TNC alliance

Congress Saturday downplayed Mamata Banerjee's fresh ultimatum to the party to decide whether or not it wanted to stay with the Trinamool Congress.

"If there are any problems in the alliance, we will sort them out by talking to Mamataji", party spokesman Rashid Alvi told reporters.

The West Bengal Chief Minister, who heads the Trinamool Congress, had Friday served a fresh ultimatum to Congress, asking it to "decide whether you want to stay with us or not".

An angry Banerjee had made the remark irked by a protest rally by Youth Congress against alleged attacks on party workers by Trinamool activists.

Trinamool is the second largest constituent of the Congress-led UPA having 22 members in the Lok Sabha. Congress is part of her government in the state.

Reports from Kolkata had it that Banerjee yesterday asked the Congress to decide both at the Centre and in the state whether to carry on the alliance with Trinamool and indicated that her party is not dependant on Congress to run the government in West Bengal.

There have been growing strains in the relations between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress. Only recently, Banerjee had threatened to withdraw support to the Centre if it failed to roll back the hike in petrol prices.