Mukherjee was speaking at a rally at Ranaghat in Nadia, about 50 kilometres from Kolkata. “Please do not commit the mistake that Prakash Karat did. We had run a government with 147 MPs and we will again run the government with 207 MPs,” the Union minister said without naming Banerjee, who has often alleged that the Congress was hand-in-glove with the CPM to undercut her party’s prospects.

Responding to the railway minister’s allegation that she was not given proper respect in the Cabinet, Mukherjee said, “If any minister has problems running the ministry, he or she should have approached the prime minister. Why does one need to go to the media on every occasion?”

Alleging she had no idea of coalition politics, the Congress leader vouched for his party’s credentials saying it had run a successful alliance with the DMK since 1971 and with the National Conference since the days of Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Banerjee has raised her pitch against the Congress after the party’s proximity with Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal grew recently when the two parties backed the UPA government during the cut motion.