Yechury rules out alliance with Congress in Bengal

Ruling out any alliance with the Congress to take on the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the party will go by its resolution in the Vishakhapatnam party Congress in April of not going into an alliance or front with the Congress or the BJP.

"As far as the CPI-M is concerned, we made it clear in the 21st Party Congress that there is no question of going in an alliance or front with the Congress or the BJP," Yechury told media persons here.

Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Gautam Deb had fuelled speculation of a possible tie-up with the Congress last week to oust the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool.

Yechury, however, said Deb has denied media reports about what he had said.

"He (Deb) did not say what is attributed to him, that we will go with the Congress," said Yechury, who was in the city to attend the party's state committee meeting.

Admitting that the Left Front was not in a position to defeat the Trinamool, former state housing and public health engineering minister Deb had hinted at a possible tie-up with the Congress for the 2016 assembly polls.

"I can't comment on any possible seat-sharing with the Congress. We have some ideological differences with that party. But please remember, we supported the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for over four years.

"There is a need for a grand alliance with like-minded political parties to defeat the Trinamool regime," Deb, a party central committee and state secretariat member, had told media persons.

Deb was summoned to the CPI-M headquarters on Monday, and is learnt to have given in black and white that he had not spoken about any alliance with the Congress.