Cong to decide on alliance with CPI(M) after latter's

After striking a pre-poll pact with DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Congress high command is expected to take a decision on the issue of alliance with the CPI(M) in poll bound West Bengal after a meeting of the Left party's politburo this week.
A senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified, said the high command would take a call after the CPI-M's top leadership deliberates on the issue.
The Politburo meeting on Tuesday will be followed by another of the Central Committee on the next two days. Last week, the CPI(M)-led Left Front in the state had formally agreed to discuss the issue of alliance with Congress, if it was approached.

Early this month, Congress leaders from the state, during a meeting with party vice president Rahul Gandhi, had unanimously rejected the idea of any alliance with Trinamool Congress but remained divided on a tie-up with the Left.
The Congress vice president had told them that party chief Sonia Gandhi will take a decision on the issue soon. His refrain was that in the emerging situation Congress is a "determining factor" in West Bengal.
Before it takes a final call on alliance, Congress would weigh which party in West Bengal could help it check BJP's march in the next Lok Sabha elections.

The AICC has so far remained tight-lipped about CPI(M)'s overtures to "save" the state from the ruling TMC. Former West Bengal chief minister and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had recently urged the Congress to join hands with the party.
Congress had contested the last Assembly elections in alliance with Mamata Banerjee's party which dislodged the CPI(M)-led Left Front government after 34 years.
The two parties, however, parted ways in September 2012 after Trinamool Congress walked out of the UPA-II government at the Centre.