BJP mulling going it alone in mid-term poll

KOLKATA: In an attempt to put pressure on its estranged ally Trinamool Congress which indicated severing ties with NDA, the BJP on Thursday said that it was keeping the option of going it alone in West Bengal in the event of a pre-term Lok Sabha elections.

''Our party feels that a mid-term election will be held sometime after February since both the UPA government and the Left have reached a point of no-return on the nuclear deal issue. Things may linger for sometime but the Lok Sabha election is almost a certainty,'' state BJP general secretary Rahul Sinha said.

''We are asking all 42 possible candidates to start work. If there was any alliance, some of them would have to go out of the race,'' he said.

He was briefing reporters on yesterday's party session in which central observer Kharbela Swain was present. The state leadership had a meeting with BJP chief Rajnath Singh last night who was on a transit here on way to Agartala.

''We have been saying it for long that our alliance with Trinamool Congress  is only on paper. In practice, it hardly exists,'' Sinha said.

BJP, he said, was eager to continue the tie-up with its ally. ''We don't want to break it. We will keep our door open.''

Mamata Banerjee had recently said her party was now with no one and was trying to stand on its own.