The Hindu : Front Page : Congress, PMO scotch rumours

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Tuesday, Oct 23, 2007
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Congress, PMO scotch rumours

Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Office and the Congress on Monday denied as “absolutely baseless and unfounded” reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh threatened to resign during a meeting of the United Progressive Alliance held at his residence ahead of the UPA-Left nuclear committee meeting. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was present.

Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan said reports about Dr. Singh saying that he was “let down” and “disappointed” and that the India-U.S. nuclear agreement was stuck were “absolutely baseless and unfounded.”

A participant, however, disclosed that the Prime Minister’s remark that the UPA would look like a “lame-duck government” if the deal did not go through led to speculation about what transpired at the meeting.

Among the alliance partners who attended the meeting were Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham’s T.R. Baalu.

Soon after, some television channels flashed the “news” that the Prime Minister had expressed “disappointment” and said it was “embarrassing” for him that there was a “U-turn” on the deal, and that he “threatened to quit.”

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that it was “nothing but baseless speculation.”

“There is some disagreement between the Congress and some of the UPA’s ‘non-Cabinet’ supporting parties on which we are engaging them and trying to persuade them to agree.”

He said there was no disagreement in the Cabinet on the deal, which was a “good one.”

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