Despite some Congress leaders flaying the "overbearing" attitude of ally Trinamool Congress (TC), West Bengal Congress president Pranab Mukherjee today projected TC chief Mamata Banerjee as chief minister in the event of the combine coming to power after 2011 assembly polls.
Mukherjee also emphasised the "timeliness" of the tie-up saying "it is a gilt-edged chance to dethrone the Left Front from power in West Bengal."
"It is very timely. It should not be allowed to be wasted," Mukherjee said on the concluding day of the party's 'chintan shibir' here in Nadia district organised to formulate political strategy for the 2011 elections.
Later, Mukherjee told reporters that the party had earlier too forged an alliance with the Trinamool Congress in the 2001 assembly election, projecting Mamata as the chief ministerial candidate.
"The leader of the largest partner in a state (Trinamool Congress) becomes the chief minister. This is nothing new," he said.
Meanwhile party strongman Adhir Chowdhury, MP, pointed out to Trinamool's "highhandedness" in seat arrangement in earlier elections, but readily agreed to Mukherjee's contention of Mamata being projected as the chief ministerial candidate.
MP Deepa Dasmunshi said they needed the alliance alright, but not at the cost of the party's grassroot organisations.
"We are ready to sacrifice for the sake of the alliance, but we are not ready to allow the Congress to be destroyed," Dasmunshi, wife of ailing former Union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, said.
In an oblique snub to critics of the alliance, Mukherjee said, "It is easy to criticise the party's decisions relating to the alliance, but if we don't understand the reasons behind them, we may not see things in proper perspective. We have to try to get the best out of the alliance."
He said he had learnt not to take those who were highly vocal against the alliance very seriously. "Those who do so, I have observed, do not have the qualms to switch sides given the opportunities."
Mukherjee, also the Union finance minister, said the alliance had to be kept alive rising above narrow considerations to dislodge the Left from power.
"We have to evolve definite social and economic programmes if we embark on ending the misrule of the Left Front government," he said.
Deepa Dasmunshi alleged without naming Mamata Banerjee that Congress members were being "taken away" to the Trinamool camp with the allurement of railway jobs and asked Mukherjee to see to it that they did not get Trinamool tickets in the 2011 assembly election.
Dasmunshi claimed that at the grassroot level it was the Trinamool Congress and not the CPI-M which was the main political adversary as Congress workers got regularly "harassed and humiliated".
"Just to keep the interst of some leaders intact, we cannot allow the Congress to be liquidated. Party organisations at the grassroot level are in disarray because of lack of motivation," Dasmunsi told the 'chintan shibir'.
Party strongman Adhir Chowdhury, MP, asked Mukherjee for early 'area demarcation' regarding seats to be fought in the 2011 assembly election, reminding him that "it was our compulsion in the last Lok Sabha election for the tie-up, but it is now Trinamool's compulsion to get it going".
"If we are not heard and given weightage, we are not going to cooperate. Last time in the 2001 assembly election we were allotted 59 seats out of 294 after hard bargaining," Chowdhury cautioned.
Congress legislator from Malda district, where the party has a strong base, Sabitri Mitra told the 'chintan shibir', attended by 370 delegates, that if the party was not conceded more seats, the alliance would boomerang.
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