PM hints at alliance with TMC, says 'no permanent enemies and friends in politics'

Hinting that the Congress Party would go into an alliance with Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that his political outfit would welcome like-minded and secular-minded persons to work together again to give the country's polity a thrust in favour of secular elements.

"In politics there are no permanent enemies and permanent friends. And in many ways, a week in politics is sometimes an unusually long period of time. So I don't rule out alliances," Dr. Singh told the media onboard on his return to India from the G-20 Summit in St. Petersburg.

"Mamata Banerjee was a very respectable member of the Congress party at one time. As the leader of the Trinamool also, we were very happy to have her in our Government. We would very much like like-minded, secular-minded persons should work again to give our country's polity a thrust in favour of secular elements," Dr. Singh added.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had earlier in September last year announced her decision to withdraw support to the UPA after her party's demands of rollback of key reforms, especially with regard to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail, increase in the price of diesel and restricting the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders for households, were not met.