The meeting was attended by Imran Kidwai, Haidar Ali, Abdul Mannan, Shankar Singh and Manas Bhuia along with nearly 1,500-2,000 Congress supporters. With Dasmunsi threatening to walk to the State Assembly violating the prohibitory orders in force, she was arrested and taken to the Presidency jail along with other leaders present in the meeting. Nearly 1,200 people including 72 women were arrested.

The rally was organised by the Congress to highlight the minority-related issues but the meeting revolved round the Trinamool-Congress alliance. Dasmunsi said the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties was not going in favour of the Congress as the seats where the Congress is contesting are either reserved ones or enjoy stronghold of the BJP.

“The votes in areas like Dum Dum and Krishnanagar will go in favour of the BJP, which is why we are given these seats.” she said.

“The Congress will be given some seats in south Bengal, which will be difficult for the party to win. We want an alliance that will help us increase our tally in Bengal. If there is no chance of that happening, it will be difficult to convince our grassroots workers accept the alliance,” said added.

Both Mannan and Bhunia supported Dasmunsi’s stand and said although they have respected party president Sonia Gandhi's decision of forging an alliance with the Trinamool they were not sure of a post-election alliance.