Karat briefs Bardhan on meeting over nuke deal

The meeting comes a day after CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and briefed him on the Central Committee resolution, which endorsed the Politburo’s stand on the nuclear issue.

The Core Committee of the Congress also discussed the matter on Friday night after UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi returned from her South Africa tour.

The Central Committee had categorically stated that while it did not want the “current crisis” over the deal to affect the UPA government, the responsibility of it lay squarely on the ruling coalition.

Yechury’s meeting with the Prime Minister before the meeting of the Congress Core Group of the Congress is understood to have discussed ways to ease the standoff between the Left and the UPA over the nuclear deal.

According to CPI-M sources, Singh told Yechury that he would get back to the party on the issue.

After the Central Committee meeting, Karat had told a press conference “Unfortunately we are again trying to allay any apprehension that we are interested in this government going. We don’t want this crisis to affect the government, but it is dependent on how the government acts.”