General secretary Sitaram Yechury has not opposed the alliance idea.
The Bengal unit of the CPM on Friday said yes to the possibility of going into an alliance with the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.
After a seven-hour meeting of the party's State Secretariat in Kolkata, 50 of 54 members who attended said the alliance was the people's will and CPM should not make another historic blunder by not bowing to it.
Former chief minister Jyoti Basu had used the phrase "historic blunder" to describe the CPM's decision in 1996 to not allow him to be prime minister.
However, a final call will depend on the CPM's top decision making body, the Central Committee, which begins a two-day meeting in Delhi on February 17. And, of course, on the Congress which has to propose the alliance. The Bengal Left Front has said they are ready to talk alliance but the Congress will have to make the first move.
On February 1, state Congress leaders, many of whom want an alliance, met party vice president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on the issue. Some even met party chief Sonia Gandhi. Senior leaders claimed an alliance was on the cards but since then there have been no public signals from the Congress.
The CPM has deep divisions on the issue. Former general secretary Prakash Karat and CPM's only chief minister Manik Sarkar of Tripura, who attended today's meeting, are known to be against the idea.
But the Bengal lobby seems to have won the day today. General secretary Sitaram Yechury has not opposed the alliance idea. Former Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been saying of late, if the Trinamool is to be removed, like minded parties should unite.
Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee declared the move for such an alliance unprincipled. "The CPM that used to call Rajiv Gandhi Bofors Gandhi and Indira Gandhi a cruel woman, that CPM is now saying come, hold my hand. It is wrong. They are sacrificing principles without which you are nothing," she said.
The Congress and CPM leaders have said, Ms Banerjee, who has held hands with the BJP and the Congress in the past and frequently changed alliances, has no right to lecture on principles.