Kolkata, November 2
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today ruled out any possibility of a mid-term election and added that the Manmohan Singh government would complete it’s tenure with the support of the Left parties.

Karat said they had now decided not to harp any further on their withdrawal of support from the UPA since the Indo-US nuclear deal issue was “deferred”. However, we will continue our campaign against the deal, he said.

Karat said the Left wanted a discussion on the deal in the upcoming winter session of Parliament that begins from November 15. However, he made it clear that they do not want any voting on the issue and if any no-confidence motion was raised in the Lok Sabha on the issue, the CPM and other Left parties would abstain.

Karat said there would be more meetings on the issue with Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister but the last meeting certainly would not be on November 16. He hoped that their differences on deal would be finally resolved.

Veteran CPM Jyoti Basu also said that there was no possibility of any snap poll in the Lok Sabha in the near future He said he had detailed discussions with Karat today on the progress of the Left parties talks with Manmohan Singh and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and was of the opinion that the present government would complete its full five years.

The veteran leader hoped the UPA would hence forth function as per the common minimum programme on which the CPM and other Left parties decided to support the Congress-led government at the centre.

Meanwhile, at the crucial meeting of the CPM state committee, held at the Alimuddin Street party office today, it was decided to launch a “damage-control drive” for repairing the harm done to the party over the over the Singhur-Nandigram issue, the government’s mishandling of the law and order problems, the ongoing food agitation and recently on the Rizwanur’s mysterious death.