Calcutta, Aug. 9: A viable anti-Left alternative cannot emerge in the state without the Congress, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi said today in a hint that Mamata Banerjee should not take his party lightly.

“Those who are continuously humiliating the Congress by calling it the B-team of the CPM should think twice (before they do it),” the state Congress chief said. That sarcastic description of the Congress was made famous by the Trinamul Congress chief.

“One should not forget that Trinamul benefited in the rural polls because of my call to (Congress) workers to vote for its candidates. Otherwise, Trinamul would have suffered a major setback,” Das Munshi said.

“Against this backdrop, I want to tell you that no anti-Left alliance can hope to remove the CPM from the state without taking the Congress on board. I will see to it that the Congress establishes itself as a viable alternative in the coming days.”

Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and AICC general secretary Salman Khursheed were present at the meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium where Das Munshi made the remarks.

Mamata, however, did not react. “Don’t ask me to comment on what the PCC chief said,” she told journalists near Haldia where she had gone to address a rally.

But one of her aides said Mamata’s silence could mean she was keeping her options open for an alliance with the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“Didi had helped the Congress-led UPA government win the trust vote in the Lok Sabha by abstaining. So, we are expecting a further realignment of forces before the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

Das Munshi today also came up with a plan for tripartite talks to solve the Singur land problem. “The government should immediately convene a tripartite meeting to discuss the return of 400 acres to unwilling farmers. We want industry, but not at the cost of poor farmers,” he said.

The three sides, he said, should be the state government, the Tatas and the representatives of the unwilling farmers whose 400 acres were “forcibly acquired”.

The Union minister also asked the state government to come out with a white paper explaining its industrial policy.