Calcutta, July 2: Minutes after the final civic poll results emerged, the Trinamul Cong-ress and the Congress offered help to each other to form municipal boards and keep the Left out of power.

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“We are maintaining equi-distance from both the Congress and the BJP, but we will help the Congress form the boards in Dubrajpur and Alipurduar, where the party is short of a majority,” Mamata Banerjee said.

“The reason is simple: we will not allow the CPM to form the boards,” she added.

State Congress president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, too, promised help wherever Trinamul doesn’t have the numbers”, never mind its formal alliance with the BJP-led NDA.

In Dubrajpur, the Congress needs Mamata. In the 15-member board, the party has won six seats and the Left five.

The BJP has two councillors and Trinamul and an Independent one each.

Same in Alipurduar, where the Congress is tied with the Left at eight. The support of the lone Trinamul winner and three independents will decide who gets power.

“We have no problem backing the Congress. But the party has to first decide whether it needs our help or that of the BJP,” Mamata said.

Trinamul needs the Congress in Habra and Midnapore.

The support of the Congress councillor and the party-backed Independent is crucial to keep the CPM out of power in the 23-member Habra board. In Midnapore town, the two Congress councillors and two Independents have to help Mamata’s party hit the majority mark of 13.

According to Das Munshi, the people had voted against the “CPM’s arrogance and bad governance”.

The results, he said, proved that the people wanted the Opposition to unite against the Left.

“The people want us to come together to fight the CPM. The results would have been far better had there been a complete pre-poll understanding with Trinamul.”

The Congress is also collaborating with Trinamul on the formation “of a large number of gram panchayats and panchayat samitis”, he added.

In the Lok Sabha polls, though, Mamata’s reluctance to formally quit the NDA could be a stumbling block.

Asked if the renewed understanding would pave the way for a tie-up before the general elections, Das Munshi said: “A broader political perspective has to be taken into account to forge an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. We shall tie up with only those who would accept Sonia Gandhi as the country’s leader and not (BJP leader L.K.) Advani.”

Buoyed by the new-found bargaining chips, Mamata said it was “too early to predict anything”.

“The Congress has some commitment to the CPM as it is running the government at the Centre with its support. We have no such commitments,” she added.

The Left, she felt, had “no moral authority” to remain in power at Writers’ Buildings after the reverses in the panchayat and municipal polls.