Kolkata, March 2
Springing a surprise, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said that she will not contest the elections in West Bengal but made it clear that she will lead the government in case her party wins and enter the Assembly within six months.

Mamata was talking to mediamen at her Kalighat residence before leaving for New Delhi. She said there was a provision in the Constitution for any Chief Minister to get elected after holding the post for six months. She would follow the same path after the Assembly polls.

The Railway Minister said her main task now was to launch a campaign all over the state in support of their candidates and to ensure defeat of the candidates of the CPM and other Left parties.

The TMC leader reiterated that her party had already forged an alliance with the Congress for the purpose and there was no problem in the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties.

“I am considering all the 294 constituencies as my own seats and accordingly, l will launch the poll campaign”, she declared.

The Railway Minister said from tomorrow she would take part in departmental budget discussions in the Parliament. She would be back to the state after March 8 and launch intensive campaign to ensure that all the 294 candidates were elected by defeating their rivals.

Before that she hoped she would be meeting the AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and declare their candidates.

The WBPCC president Dr Manash Bhuiya welcomed Mamata’s announcement, adding that he would be delighted to see her in the chief minister’s chair after the elections.

Bhuiya said the Congress had already accepted her as future Chief Minister. Accordingly, he wanted that both the parties should move together during the electioneering and work for the defeat of the Left Front candidates.

He hoped there would be no disagreement or misunderstanding among them which could harm their unity.

Dr Bhuiya said they would meet the AICC leaders, including the finance minister and the party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, in the capital on March 4 and 5
and press their demand for allotment of seats. He, however, did not specify the number of seats his party would be seeking.

Some WBPCC leaders demanded some 90 seats, but the TMC, at best, was agreeable to allot 56 seats to the Congress. The rest (238) would be shared by the TMC with other partners, including SUCI, one of Mamata’s closed aides told The Tribune today.