Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who till now has maintained a stoic silence on any alliance, said on Wednesday that the possibility of a tie-up with the Congress “could not be ruled out”, though at the moment, she prefers to keep an “equal distance from both the Congress and the BJP”.

On the other hand, state Congress president Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was more direct. He said, “The Congress has its doors open for the Trinamool. We can talk.” His invitation, however, came with a rider. “Once they accept Sonia Gandhi as their leader, talks between the two parties will move at a very high speed,” Dasmunsi said.

Both parties consolidated their position by winning eight of the 13 municipalities that had gone to polls. Dasmunsi said the results also proved that like rural voters, a large section of the urban voters had also rejected the Left Front. “In such a scenario, it has become more important for the two main opposition parties to work together,” he said.

The Left Front has lost five municipalities since last time. This, Dasmunsi said, is a clear signal from the urban voter, and it is for the CPM to understand this. Replying to a question on whether relations between the Trinamool and the Congress would reach a situation where the two parties could fight parliamentary elections together, Dasmunsi said the state Congress leadership is keeping an open mind. “We are certain about one thing — we do not want to hand over the reins of the country to communal forces,” he said.

Though the exact vote share was not available, Dasmunsi looked happy, as the Congress had managed to come second in many wards.

The Congress is ready to support the Trinamool wherever the party has a chance of forming municipal boards, he added, mainly in Habra and Midnapore. He also said the state Congress will embark on a series of agitation programmes from August.

The Trinamool has gained the most from these results as they have wrested three from the nine that the CPM controlled prior to the elections. Of the 13, it holds the CPM to five each, while the Congress has got 3.

Sources in both parties said there had been a lot of “unofficial cooperation” with the Trinamool lending support to the Congress in several municipalities.