Calcutta, March 27: In a virtual rebuff to Congress president Pranab Mukherjee, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said her party needed no advice from any one on electoral alliances and would rather go it alone.

Mamata?s observation dimmed the prospects of a Congress-Trinamul poll pact ahead of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation elections in June.

Taking a dig at Mukherjee, Mamata said let those advising her to quit the NDA first leave the CPM, which is backing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.

Mukherjee had asked Mamata to sever ties with the NDA before mulling a poll pact with the Congress.

?A Congress leader has been giving a lot of advice to Trinamul for a long time. I just want to say that whether a political party will speak to another on poll alliance is entirely its own prerogative. I want to tell those leaders who are advising me to quit the NDA that they first leave the CPM. This is sheer hypocrisy. You want to fight the party with which you have allied to form the alliance in Delhi. Our party doesn?t believe in such ideals,? Mamata told a news conference at her Kalighat house.

She added that Trinamul had its own policy making body and was capable of taking its own decisions. ?How can someone impose conditions on us?? she asked, adding that Trinamul had been fighting the CPM all alone in the state. ?We don?t need anyone?s help to fight the CPM.?

Pranab Mukherjee said during the day that alliance with Trinamul in the past (the 2001 Assembly polls) did not really pay off.

He also denied having advised Trinamul on its strategy. ?The question of advice doesn?t arise. Every party has its own ideals and that is how a democracy works. We did go into a pact with Trinamul and did not benefit,? he said.

Later, with Trinamul mayor Subrata Mukherjee beside him at a programme in Phoolbagan, Pranab Mukherjee said it is ?unfortunate? that ?narrow political feelings? come in the way of development.

Mayor Mukherjee spoke highly of Pranab Mukherjee, also the defence minister. ?In my political career, I have always remained indebted to two personalities ? Indira Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee and I have no qualms about admitting it,? he said.