Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee said here on Tuesday that despite the failure of her party and the Congress in formalising an anti-Left "mahajot" (grand alliance), those working at the grassroots level had got together in at least 80 per cent of the Assembly constituencies.

This had been done to ensure there was no division in the anti-Left vote, she added.

Such an alliance had emerged defying the Congress rejection of the Trinamool offer for an understanding, she said at a meet-the-press programme.

The Congress had rejected the offer arguing that the Trinamool leadership had refused to sever ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party.The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has all along been insisting that despite the apparent failure of the two parties to formalise such an arrangement, a covert electoral understanding was being made by the Congress and the Trinamool at the lower levels.

The BJP was also a part of this anti-Left alliance at the grassroots level — mainly in the districts, Ms. Banerjee said.

"What I can now say is save for Kolkata, the Trinamool, the Congress and the BJP have been successful in forging a `mahajot'" with the purpose of ensuring a win for a "strong Opposition candidate against the Left nominee," she added.

She dismissed the exit polls after the first two rounds of polling in West Bengal saying that the final outcome "would be quite different from what has been predicted," as the people had voted without fear because of the measures taken by the Election Commission.

Exit polls by local television channels after the first two rounds predicted a clean sweep for the Left Front. Another three rounds remain.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail