Calcutta, May 19 :    Calcutta, May 19:  Former West Bengal chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray said today he had been approached by the state Congress leadership to contest, as well as campaign for the party, in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Known to be a sympathiser of Mamata Banerjee till recently, Ray also said he had severed all links with the Trinamul Congress leader. Referring to what he described as a ?very recent talk? with the state Congress leadership, Ray said he had been asked to contest from Calcutta North-West. Ray claimed that he had discussed the issue with state Congress chief A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, working president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and former party chief Somen Mitra. ?Initially, I was not in a mind to contest the polls this time, but subsequently, I had to agree when senior state Congress leaders approached me,? he said. ?I am also expecting a call from the party high command anytime.? Claiming that he will have another round of talks with state leaders on this score, Ray said: ?I don?t mind contesting from Calcutta North-West. But I will not opt for Calcutta South where Mamata won as a Trinamul Congress candidate last time.? As all state Congress leaders were away in New Delhi in connection with the current crisis in the party, no official version in response to Ray?s claim was readily available. Ray also suggested that the state leadership should not put up any candidate against Mamata in Calcutta South. He, however, refused to elaborate on the reason behind the argument. Ray?s detractors in the Congress, on the other hand, ruled out such a possibility. They termed his gesture as ?an abject surrender to Mamata?. In the 1998 Lok Sabha election, Ray did not contest, but campaigned for the party against the BJP. However, he did not take part in the poll propaganda against Trinamul Congress because of his ?soft corner? for Mamata. ?I can neither ally with Mamata nor campaign for her this time because of her links with the BJP,? he said, adding: ?I am a secular Congressman.? Caught offguard by Ray opting for Calcutta North-West, Debi Pal, who won the seat three consecutive times, but lost only last year, said: ?I will not concede the seat from where I was elected thrice.? Without naming Ray, Pal said he would seek the high command?s intervention if somebody stakes claim for ?the constituency I have been nurturing for years?. Reacting to the letter the three Congress Working Committee members had written against Congress President, Ray said: ?The charges against Sonia Gandhi are baseless. She is more Indian than any other Indian?. Maintaining that this was the result of a power struggle within the Congress, he said: ?I hope the crisis will be over soon and the Congress will fare better in the coming polls.? Miscreants ransacked a music shop at Chandni Chowk this morning after the police raided an adjoining shop to unearth fake cassettes. Detectives went to a shop after receiving information that fake cassattes were being sold from there. According to police officials, some locals, assuming that music shop owners had given the tip off, ransacked it.