Congress junks Trinamool Congress’ threat, ready to face polls alone

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee ( WBPCC) doesn’t seem to be afraid of Trinamool Congress’ threat to fight future elections on its own. In fact, the Congress, all charged up by its win in Cooper’s Camp municipal elections, is ready to contest the 2013 panchayat elections alone too.

WBPCC President Pradip Bhattacharya conveyed the message to party chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday. “Senior Trinamool Congress leaders have already given a clear hint that their party is capable of contesting next year’s three-tier panchayat elections on its own. So are we. If they want to go it alone, it is okay, although we still want to continue our ties with them,” Bhattacharya told ET from Delhi on Thursday.

“Even this time, Trinamool contested the six municipal elections alone, but we still retained Cooper’s Camp for the fourth straight time and increased our vote share everywhere to emerge as the second largest party. I have submitted a report to our party high command giving the details ,” Bhattacharya said.

Nadia District Congress President Shankar Singh said: “Trinamool is not actually fighting the CPM. They are fighting us. Take the case of Cooper's Camp. We ran the civic body for three consecutive terms. The CPM was nowhere but the Trinamool made all efforts possible to snatch away the municipality from us. They didn’t succeed though the MLA for Ranaghat South Assembly constituency and the MP from Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat are both from Trinamool.”