There is no plan for any alliance with the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress leadership said on Tuesday.

When asked to comment on whether the TMC would for once consider any electoral alliance with the Congress in 2018 general elections senior TMC leader and State Minister Subroto Mukherjee said “there is no question of any alliance at least before the elections. There will be no pre-poll alliance. Whatever tie-up that may be taken up for consideration will be after the elections.”

All parties had their separate views and strategies about the elections and the TMC too had its. But on the question of defeating the BJP all the opposition parties were thinking in one direction “that is this party has to be defeated,” and the TMC was of the view that “the party which is strong in a particular region should be supported by the other parties against the BJP.”

Incidentally Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had already made it clear that her party would contest all the 42 Lok Sabha seats of the State alone.

Reacting to the issue State Opposition Leader and Congress veteran Abdul Mannan said “question of alliance has not come up because no one from the Congress has approached them (Trinamool) with an alliance proposal. In fact we have already given our decision for a solo fight from a recent rally in Kolkata.”

On the BJP’s proposed Rath Yatra for which the State Government had denied permission on grounds of communal harmony, the senior Minister said, “permission was denied in order to maintain peace,” wondering, “how the BJP will be able to manage so many people required for a Yatra of the magnitude they are planning.”

Incidentally the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked the State BJP for three tentative dates for the proposed Rath Yatra.

The Court of Justice Tapabrata Chakrabarty also asked the State Advocate General to submit before it the video recording of the meeting held under the Court’s direction between the State officials and the BJP leadership in which the saffron outfit reportedly claimed that the Yatra had no religious undertones and that it was purely a political programme.

“The State was categorically told by our leaders that it is a political and not religious Yatra but still they are not giving permission for it,” BJP leader JP Majumdar said. The next hearing for the matter will be held on Wednesday.