Monday, August 29 2005 16:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Pouring cold water on recent proposals to rejoin the Congress, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee yesterday (August 28, 2005) alleged that the Congress in West Bengal was hand-in-glove with the Communist Party of India (Marxists) in line with an understanding at the Centre.

Saying that her party would emerge the true 'alternative' to the Left Front led by the CPI-M in next year's Assembly polls, she argued that the Congress here was not serious enough to take on the Left Front.

''In Delhi, the Congress is dependent on Left support to run the government. Here the Congress has sold itself to the CPI-M,'' she alleged.

Mamata was speaking at the foundation day of the Trinamool Congress' student wing, Trinamool Congress Chatra Parishad. The Congress also organised a meeting at another venue to observe the foundation day of its student wing, Chatra Parishad addressed by the state Congress chief and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Asserting that she was determined to capitalise on the acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purpose, the Trinamool Congress chief said that his party would oppose the proposed multi-crore deal with Indonesia's Salem Group to set up an economic zone on agricultural land 'uprooting' thousands of farmers.