West Bengal Congress leadership today said that any kind of bonhomie with Trinamool Congress would be fatal for the state unit and BJP would try to cash in in that situation.
"Yes, there are a lot of apprehensions and questions among the grassroots workers, who despite all sorts of threat and intimidation by TMC, are carrying the party flag. We are trying to answer those queries, but we are not sure whether we can convince them.
"Congress in Bengal had been suffering for a long time due to equations of national politics," WBPCC president Adhir Chowdhury told PTI.
The recent meeting between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has put the Bengal Congress leadership to a quandary.
"Although the meeting was regarding the presidential elections, yet it is a matter of concern as party workers and leaders are asking several questions and we don't have any proper answer", former union minister Deepa Dasmunsi said.
"At a time when the TMC is trying to finish off Congress in the state either by use of violence or by poaching on our elected representatives, a meeting between our top leadership and the TMC chief is sending out a wrong message.
"It is tough to convince party workers, who were beaten up by TMC on the day of civic poll that there has been no compromise," she said.
Chowdhury had shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi on May 13 urging her not to allow any equation of national politics hamper the prospects of the party in the state.
He said that BJP would try to cash in in that situation.
Chowdhury said that the Congress workers were "miffed" and "it was the destiny of Bengal Congress to suffer due to equations of national politics".
AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed, however, dismissed the apprehensions and said "No one should equate the considerations and equations of national politics with state politics. We are trying to get BJD from Odisha with us in this presidential polls. The party workers in Odisha are not raising such questions."
Ahmed is confident that the state Congress unit is "intelligent enough to understand the complications and equations of fighting a communal force like BJP."
The state Congress president admitted that the party high command has not asked the state unit to back out from it's movement against the ruling TMC.
Pradeep Bhattacharya, MP and former WBPCC chief said, "It is true that it has created a confusion among the rank and file of the party. But when you are a state unit of a national party, you have to abide by the policies and decisions of the high command. We are not a regional party that we can act on our own."
Congress had lost two of its zilla parishads in Malda and Murshidabad districts when majority of party members of the two bodies had switched over to TMC.
Meanwhile, BJP, which has been trying to project itself as the "real opposition" in Bengal, said the meeting between Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee was a signal that both parties were planning to open a front against BJP.
"We have been saying for the last one year that only BJP can fight against the misrule of TMC as both the Left and the Congress have surrendered before Mamata Banerjee in Bengal," state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)