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All options open for presidential polls, says Mamata
Friday May 04, 2012 09:30:41 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: West Bengal
Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Friday
met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding her demand for
interest moratorium to the state and said her party's options for
the presidential polls were open.
"Our options are all open. There has been no talk regarding
candidature (in presidential elections). There is time. If they
want to talk, they will let us know," Banerjee told reporters
after her meeting with the prime minister at his 7 RCR residence.
Banerjee did not directly answer a question about possibility of
Pranab Mukherjee emerging as the Congress choice in the
presidential polls.
"I am myself (there) first," she quipped.
Trinamool Congress sources said the party was likely to back a
Congress nominee in the polls. Banerjee had Thursday met Congress
president Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh
Yadav.
Banerjee told reporters at length about her demand for a
three-year moratorium on interest payment and indicated she had
not got any immediate commitment from the prime minister.
"I cannot say about his opinion. Serious discussions are taking
place," she said and added that no solution had so far been found.
Banerjee had April 21 given a 15-day ultimatum to the central
government to accept her demand and warned that its "indifferent
attitude" could become a "big issue."
However, she did not refer to any deadline Friday and added that
she will wait for a few days.
"I did not talk of deadlines. If it doesn't happen, we will see."
She said talks was part of the democratic process and it was the
duty of chief ministers to raise issues concerning the states.
Banerjee said the state was not in a position to pay interest on
debt incurred by the Left Front government.
"It is the only state which had 35 years of misrule," Banerjee
said.
The chief minister also indirectly blamed the central government
for the state's financial woes, saying that the previous Left
Front government had been given sanctioned loans with the help of
finance ministry.
Banerjee said her government did not have funds even for
development projects.
She also demanded a national holiday to mark the 150th birth
anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.
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