External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee held a high-level meeting with veteran communist leader and former chief minister Jyoti Basu, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPI (M) state secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Sunday morning.
The meeting was held at Basu’s residence at Indira Bhawan in Salt Lake prior to the crucial UPA-Left meeting on the nuclear deal on October 9 to find a way out for the Left-UPA standoff over the Indo-US Nuclear deal.
Later, at a public meeting of the National Federation of Postal Employees, Bhattacharjee opposed the Indo-US strategic alliance saying any such move would hurt the country economically, politically and militarily. “We are totally opposed to the strategic alliance. We have been asking the UPA government not to go ahead with the nuke deal,” the chief minister said.
Mukherjee is the convenor of the 15-member UPA-Left committee set up to address the Left’s concerns about the nuclear deal.
Amid speculation over mid-term elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had said on Saturday that her party was ready to face them.
Biman Bose, reacting to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's comment said, “I do not think she made the statement seriously. However, we are always prepared to hold elections any time.”
{{/usCountry}}Biman Bose, reacting to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's comment said, “I do not think she made the statement seriously. However, we are always prepared to hold elections any time.”
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