Sunday, January 15 2006 20:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Raiganj (WB): Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today (Jan 15, 2006)said that she would talk to senior Congress leader and former Railway minister A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury at Malda tomorrow (Jan 16,2006)on electoral tie-up before the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.

"As I am going to Malda, I will talk to Barkat da (Khan Chowdhury) tomorrow," Banerjee told a party rally in Raiganj in South Dinajpur district.

The meeting between the two leaders is significant and may cause an embarassment to the state Congress leadership because Khan Chowdhury defying party line has backed the Trinamool Congress's proposal for an anti Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) grand alliance in which the BJP would be a partner.

Banerjee said she was in favour of a 'one-to-one fight' with the CPI (M) in the state.

She said that she wanted to have the Malda model for Mahajot (Grand Alliance) in all the 294 Assembly constituencies in the state.

''If Barkat Da can think of a one-to-one fight with the CPI (M), why can't the other leaders think on similar line, since that alone can dislodge the Left Front from power?" she wondered.

While Banerjee has proposed a 'Mahajot' of the Congress, Trinamool and BJP, the Defence Minister and West Bengal Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee has, however, ruled out any alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and asked Banerjee to come out of the NDA for any alliance with his party.

Khan Chowdhury, a party Lok Sabha member from Malda in North Bengal apparently made his decision known to Banerjee at a marriage reception he hosted for his niece in Kolkata last Tuesday.