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Pranab sees no early elections

Vinay Kumar

“Nobody talking of polls”

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said he did not foresee early elections.

In an interview to NDTV on Saturday, when asked about the possibility of an election before 2009, Mr. Mukherjee said: “I do not think so. We want the polls in due time. I do not visualise anyone thinking of an early election, our coalition partners or coalition supporters are not talking of an early election.”

To a question whether there was a debate in the Congress if the nuclear deal was worth sacrificing the government for, he said: “Nobody is talking of holding elections now…there is no talk of sacrificing the government for something.”

On the May deadline set by senior U.S. senators and officials for the deal to reach Congress, he said: “Of course, there is a time frame because they have an election process but so far as India is concerned, we have mentioned to them that it’s not possible for us to work within a specific time frame.”

Mr. Mukherjee said he had not seen Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, threatening to withdraw support. The CPI(M) general secretary, Prakash Karat, had written to him asking for a meeting after reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreement was done.

Mr. Mukherjee, however, said that the Left’s threat was not new, saying: “They have always said that if you proceed with civil nuclear cooperation with the U.S., they will have to withdraw support.”

PTI reports:

Referring to the Left threat, he said “many unforeseen things happen” in coalition politics, “but the things you have referred to are not unforeseen because the position of the Left parties is well known to us.”

On Mr. Karat’s letter, he said: “There he has simply stated that as per our arrangement we shall have to meet.”

“We have read in newspapers that negotiations with the IAEA are complete. So, kindly fix a meeting, preferably by March 15’,” the External Affairs Minister quoted the letter as saying.

Asked what the government would do if the Left at the next meeting demanded that it should not go ahead with the deal, Mr. Mukherjee said, “What they will demand and what will be our response, I know how to deal with it.”

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