Monday, January 16 2006 16:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Malda: Refusing to toe the line of WBPCC President Pranab Mukherjee, veteran party leader A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, who met Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today (Jan 16, 2006), started the spadework for a 'Mahajot', an anti-CPI(M) 'grand alliance' including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in his home district for the coming assembly polls.

A former Railway Minister Khan Chowdhury who is the party 'strongman' in Malda and a Lok Sabha member from the district said the grand alliance would take place irrespective of the state leadership's stand and he would meet the party President Sonia Gandhi to convince her.

Khan Chowdhury said, "I will talk to Sonia Gandhi and try to convince her. I hope she will agree with us."

Observing that Congress needed the unqualified support of Mamata Banerjee in the efforts to oust the CPI(M) from power in West Bengal, Khan Chowdhury said though there were 'ideological differences' with BJP, without a 'Mahajot' (grand alliance) of Congress, Trinamool Congress and BJP, the task of removal of Left Front Government would remain a dream.

Without naming Pranab Mukherjee, Khan Chowdhury said "I will not accept the pretensions of a party leader from the state. At this hour it is important that all of us unite to oust CPI(M) which has perpetrated misrule for 29 years."

Mukherjee has said that the grand alliance was possible only sans the BJP.