Alliance with Trinamool only on the basis of honour: Congress

Sending a blunt message to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Congress today said any alliance with the party for next year's assembly elections in West Bengal should be on the "basis of honour".

It also hinted that the reported jibes at Rahul Gandhi by the Trinamool leader have not gone down well with it.

"An alliance should be an alliance with honour is the essential philosophy of Congress wherever it is going for seat sharing or tie up in the country," party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.

Besides, he said the Congress respected the simplicity of the railway minister and "we also expect that she respected simplicity of other people in the polity".

Tewari's remarks came in reply to questions whether the Congress was adopting 'let bygones be bygones' attitude while having an alliance with Mamata's party in the backdrop of her remarks critical of Gandhi as also projecting herself as an icon of simplicity who wears slippers and does not do politics from "bed of gold".

Referring to Gandhi's sudden forays in West Bengal, Mamata had recently likened him to a "seasonal flower" and a "cuckoo", which had prompted sharp reactions from state Congress leaders who warned that the alliance could be jeopardised if she continued to "insult our top leaders".

Trinamool Congress is the biggest ally of the Congress in the UPA having the largest number of members in the Lok Sabha in the ruling alliance after Congress. The two parties had contested the Lok Sabha elections together.

West Bengal Congress leaders have already questioned Mamata's "sense of propriety and civility".

WBPCC president Manas Bhuniya had launched a scathing attack on her. "Repeated remarks made by some of our friends about a leader of Rahul Gandhi's stature only cast serious doubts on their education, sense of propriety, grooming and civility."

"The Congress was always for throwing the CPI(M) out of Bengal and would go any distance to do so. But nothing can happen at the cost of our dignity and honour," was Bhuniya's refrain recently.