Kolkata | The CPI(M) on Wednesday said that the Left and the Congress have to fight together to uphold independence and democracy, claiming that aligning with the Trinamool Congress will not save the grand old party.

CPI(M) West Bengal secretary Mohammed Salim claimed that the TMC has eaten into the Congress strongholds like Malda and Murshidabad districts in the state.

"We have to fight together for upholding independence and democracy, as going with the Trinamool Congress will not save the Congress," he said at a rally of the party's students' wing SFI in Malda town.

The CPI(M) leader welcomed Congress' Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will enter West Bengal through Cooch Behar district on Thursday.

"Our condition is that it (Congress) must not have any truck with the Trinamool Congress," Salim told reporters later.

The CPI(M)'s stand is that the opposition INDIA bloc is not for seat sharing in the Lok Sabha elections, Salim said, maintaining that it is the ideals that should be talked about and not about any particular leader.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that her party, the TMC, has decided to go alone in the Lok Sabha polls.

Describing Banerjee as an important pillar of the opposition alliance, the Congress said that no one can imagine the existence of the INDIA bloc without the TMC supremo.

Salim claimed that the TMC has been harping on who should be the face of the INDIA bloc.

He sought to remind the Congress from the SFI rally in Malda that without its support the TMC could not have won the 2011 assembly elections defeating the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

He alleged that the Congress was unceremoniously ditched by the chief minister after that.

The Left Front and the Congress, which fought the 2021 assembly elections in the state in an alliance, could not win a single seat.