Kolkata, May 8 (IANS): West Bengal Congress President Adhir Chowdhury on Monday accused the state's ruling Trinamool Congress of conspiring to weaken his party's strength in the state while simultaniously promoting the rise of BJP.

Talking to the reporters at the press club here, Chowdhury claimed that the Trinamool is resorting to different tactics like blackmailing, registering fake police cases to scare the Congress leaders and activists away from the party.

Admitting that the strength of Congress has gone down in Bengal since 1977, the leader said winning 44 seats in the state assembly polls show that Congress is still a formidable force here.

Chowdhury also accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of conspiring with the BJP in Delhi and "Trinamool and BJP has the same political DNA."

About the upcoming Panchayat polls, he said he feared that the polling date of May 14 would be marred with violence by the Trinamool-backed miscreants and urged the State Election Commission to stop dancing to the tune of the party in power and take necessary steps to conduct the election in a proper way.