With Assembly polls in five States being round the corner, the Congress doesn’t want to give an indication that the UPA Government at the Centre is weak so despite being slammed by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, it played down the row saying that differences will eventually be sorted out.

However, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi conceded that the party is open to the idea of a UPA coordination committee to sort out differences with the alliance partner. Singhvi said that idea of the coordination committee is neither ruled out nor the demand is irrational but it was for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the allies to discuss and decide about it.

Singhvi, however, sharply retorted to Mamata’s statement that the Congress is scared of Trinamool’s decision to field candidates for Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur and said that there was no question of the 125-year-old party being scared of any one either at the Centre or at the State. Since Trinamool has not much base in UP, the Congress perceives no serious threat from the alliance partner in UP.

Though Singhvi appealed all stakeholders in West Bengal not to react aggressively, a senior Congress leader said that the ongoing row is likely to further intensify in near future as no efforts will be made to placate Mamata in the next couple of months when the party will be busy with the Assembly elections of the five States.

Any efforts to hold talks with “mercurial” Mamata will be initiated only by the end of February,  before the Budget Session of Parliament, he said.

The Congress has ruled out accepting Mamata’s challenge to leave the West Bengal Government. But at the same time the party will not ask its cadre in West Bengal to restrain itself saying that the State Congress leadership needs to counter Trinamool’s challenge in West Bengal especially in view of the coming panchayat polls which both the parties are likely to fight separately.

Since Mamata knows that she has greater leverage over Congress due to  two-third majority in the State and providing support of 19 MPs at the Centre, she will make all out efforts to embarrass the alliance partner so the Congress strategy is to have “buffer” support of the Samajwadi Party after UP polls and increase its numbers in the Rajya Sabha by improved performance in poll going States, he pointed out.

Moreover, Mamata will need a friendly Centre to run the State Government in future also in view of the huge financial debt of West Bengal, he said and added that only the Congress is the natural ally of Trinamool as being Chief Minister she can’t afford to go with NDA fearing that she will lose minority support base in the State.