Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said he was confident that the Congress and Trinamool Congress would contest next year's assembly elections in West Bengal jointly even though the two parties are going to fight separately in coming civic polls.
He said past experience has shown that Left parties gained if the Congress and the Trinamool Congress contested polls separately in West Bengal.
"I am quite confident that there would be seat adjustment in assembly elections... we will be able to have alliance (with TMC) in Assembly elections," Mukherjee told NDTV.
Rejecting speculation that the two parties may contest the Assembly polls separately, he said, "One cannot come to the conclusion that there would be no alliance just because we did not have alliance in civic body elections."
He contented that the nature of a civic poll is totally different from Assembly or Parliamentary elections.
"They are a different type of elections," Mukherjee said. On the advantage of contesting elections together, he said, "Two sides of a triangle is always bigger than the third
side."
Whether he is angry with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for taking a direct swipe at him, he said, "I cannot afford to be angry with anybody... my responsibility is to ensure that the coalition functions."
On possible break-up with TMC, he said "I am not ruling out any eventuality. But as of today, I do not see why there cannot be any adjustment in assembly elections".
Whether he is fed up with Mamata, he said, "Not at all."
