West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has extended an olive branch to CPI(M) and Congress. She has said on Wednesday that the two parties should work with the TMC to fight the BJP.

"Even if we don't join hands politically, we have to show unity at the on issues at the national level," Banerjee has been quoted as saying.

Bengal will go to Assembly polls in 2021. I-PAC strategist Prashant Kishor (who worked with YSRCP in the past) is believed to have advised the Bengal CM to join hands with CPM and Congress to defeat the BJP. Without this unity, it will be impossible to keep the saffron party from wresting power. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 18 out of 42 seats in the State.