TMC-Cong tie-up for assembly polls on cards?

Though Trinamool Congress registered an impressive win in the West Bengal civic polls, the fractured mandate in several municipalities has indicated that a tie-up with Congress may brighten its prospects in the Assembly elections next year.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had said during electioneering that voters were polarised between her party and the Left Front and asked people not to vote for Congress, would nonetheless need that party by her side for a clear victory in the 2011 Assembly polls and the message lay in the hung outcome in 28 of the 81 municipalities, feel analysts.

Trinamool would require Congress support to take control of these municipalities. In North 24-Paraganas district, where 21 municipalities (the most in any district) went to the polls, as many as seven returned a hung board.

Trinamool will need Congress support in five civic bodies - Garulia, Barasat, Baranagar, Titagarh and New Barrackpur. The same holds true for Congress in Basirhat and Baduria. That the two parties would constitute the boards in these municipalities and may fight the next assembly polls together can be assumed from the statements of both Congress and Trinamool, the analysts say.

"What do you mean by a hung board. They (Cong and TC) will sit together and discuss to form boards to keep CPI-M out. Our single agenda is to vote out CPI-M," AICC general secretary in-charge of the state K Kesava Rao said.

Indicating her party may join hands with Congress, Banerjee has said Trinamool would have its chairman in over 50 municipalities. On asked about a tie-up, Banerjee she said, "I can't say anything about tomorrow. I am not a political astrologer. I am always open for alliance. I am in favour of a mahajote (grand alliance). Let us see what happens." Rao, on the other hand, said, "We will remain together. The next government (in the state) will be formed by our alliance."

Trinamool alone captured 25 civic bodies while the two parties together could form boards in another 25 of 28 hung municipalities. Trinamool also requires support of the Independents besides Congress to constitute boards in another two municipalities. Congress alone captured six municipalities.

Left Front, which had won 55 municipalities in 2005, captured only 17 civic bodies. The Front may form boards in Jhalda in Purulia with the support of Independents. In another four municipalities, there is a tie with LF and Congress-Trinamool having the same number of seats.