This Article is From May 02, 2010

Congress not doing us any favours: Mamata

Kolkata:
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Ruling out any seat adjustment with the Congress in the coming civic polls in West Bengal, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday announced candidates for all 141 seats in the KMC elections, saying in war, there can be no friendly fight.

"Those who are giving oxygen to the CPI(M) here, we will not leave an inch to them," Banerjee told a news conference releasing the list of candidates for Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, to be held on May 30 along with 81 other municipal bodies in the state.

Squarely blaming the Congress, its UPA ally, for the collapse of the alliance for the civic polls, she said, "Despite their refusal to leave a single seat to us in Murshidabad (a Congress stronghold), we gave them 25 here."

WBPCC on Saturday announced candidates for 88 seats following clearance from the party high command, deciding to go it alone after Trinamool Congress offered them only 25 wards against their demand for 51, including the ones they had come first or second in the last KMC polls in 2005.

To a question, Banerjee, who has single-handedly upstaged CPI(M)-led Left Front from all south Bengal seats including the metropolis in the last Lok Sabha elections, said, "There is no question of a friendly fight (against Congress). In war, the term (friendly fight) does not exist."

"If anyone thinks by abusing us they will help CPI(M), I am not going to bow down," a visibly angry Banerjee said.

Asked whether the breakdown will help the Left, she said, "Our fight is against the CPI(M). Whether this breakdown will help the CPI-M, ask those who are helping them."
     
Cautioning the Congress at the Centre also, she said, "Just because we have entered into an alliance doesn't mean they can say or do anything."
    
"It's not a Congress government, it's a UPA government and the Congress has 206 seats," she said in an oblique reference to its power as the second largest UPA constituent with 19 Lok Sabha seats.
    
"There are other constituents also like the NCP, DMK and Muslim League," she said.
    
In the list released by Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress fielded 76 new candidates, 54 women and 27 from the minority community.
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