Ruling out any alliance with Mamata Banerjee unless she parted ways with the BJP, Dasmunshi said those Congressmen who were in favour of a poll tie-up with the Trinamool Congress, should come to terms with the ground realities.

``I understand their sentiment, but they should be practical and reasonable. How can the Congress tie up with a party which has sided with those who were responsible for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination ?'' he asked.

He denied that the Congress was having difficulty in getting a suitable candidate to take on Banerjee in the Calcutta south seat. ``There is nodearth of candidates for the seat,'' he said, adding those Congressmen who were saying so were only trying to make the party an object of ridicule. To a question, Dasmunshi said that no decision had been taken on fielding former state chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Roy from the Calcutta north west constituency.

He said excepting Malda, from where party's lone MP from the state A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury would enter the fray, candidates have not been finalised for any other seat. ``We are discussing a number of names. The final list will, however, be made by the Congress parliamentary board''.