Trinamool tie-up not binding in post-poll scene, says Pranab

The Congress’ pre-poll seat-sharing agreement with Trinamool in West Bengal did not prevent it from entering into a post-poll tie-up with the Left, senior party leader and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday.

“I personally initiated the seat-sharing agreement with Trinamool. In the agreement, there is no precondition against a post-poll alliance with the Left,” Pranab made it clear at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme here.

Similarly, he ruled out dissolving the Left Front government in West Bengal before the end of its term in 2011 if the Trinamool-Congress combine came to power at the Centre. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has been persistently demanding dissolution of the state government.

“There is no such condition in the agreement with Trinamool,” Pranab said.
On post-poll alliances, he said, “I am not ruling out any possibility.”

With reference to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Pranab said though this time the Congress did not have a pre-poll alliance with the RJD, it was not necessary that there would not be any post-poll.

He, however, did not give a straight answer to how far the seat-sharing agreement with Trinamool would help improve the Congress’ strength in West Bengal. “I hope we will do better this time,” he said.

Dismissing the Third Front, Pranab said it was a conception, not a reality. “We have our projected prime minister and so does the BJP. But in the Third Front, there’s no such thing.”

On BJP leader LK Advani terming Manmohan Singh a weak PM, Pranab said it was not necessary for a prime minister to be a wrestler or hard-talker. “After the Mumbai attack, we diplomatically put pressure on Pakistan. We got the international community on our side. For the first time, the Pakistani external affairs minister publicly admitted that those behind the Mumbai attack were people from his soil,” he said.