Trinamool Congress said on Thursday that it was not bargaining for ministerial berths in the new Government with a senior party leader maintaining that the party forged electoral ties with Congress in West Bengal without any precondition.
"I know my leader (Mamata Banerjee) very well. She has already made it clear that she will not bargain for ministerial berths," Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Partho Chatterjeee said.
"Our party has not set any conditions," he said.
He parried a question on whether Banerjee herself would join the Cabinet, saying "I do not know because I am not part of the Trinamool Parliamentary party."
Asked whether Trinamool Congress would demand president's rule in West Bengal, Chatterjee evaded a direct reply but said the Left Front must go because the verdict has gone totally against them.
"If they are bad in Delhi, they are bad in West Bengal also," he said. Referring to "political atrocities" in West Bengal, he said "if they go on on their own it is all right, if not we will raise our voice."
Another party leader Dinesh Trivedi said "we are solidly behind the congress and this Government will last its full term of five years."
Mamata is also understood to have held discussions with some of her senior leaders on the developments so far in regard to government formation and allocation of cabinet portfolios by the Congress party.
Sources maintained that Trinamool Congress is eying the portfolios of Coal and Mines, Steel and Civil Aviation, besides Railways.
Meanwhile, the newly elected MPs of the party, who arrived here today, went to Parliament to complete the formalities.
The Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party met in Kolkata two days ago in which Banerjee was elected as the leader of the parliamentary party, which also pledged to support the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
All the newly-elected MPs including Mamata attended the meeting besides the party's two Rajya Sabha members Mukul Roy and Swapan Sadhan Bose.
Newly-elected MPs Sultan Ahmed and Gobinda Chandra Naskar have been elected deputy leaders of the parliamentary party.
