Mukherjee has miraculous escape, again

Guwahati, March 31 : External Affairs Minister and senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee had a proverbial miraculous escape after his helicopter hit an air pocket when he was going from here to Silchar for an election rally Tuesday evening.

His chopper had an abrupt altitude fall probably due to the downward air current, but the pilot guided it to safety and flew back to Guwahati, Congress leaders here said.

“It was a close shave. Mukherjee visited the Kamakhya temple to offer prayers after returning here,” Assam Congress president Bhubaneswar Kalita told IANS.

Earlier in the evening, a bomb went off only a kilometre away from the venue of Mukherjee’s election rally minutes before he was to reach there. One person was killed and 16 others were injured in the explosion.

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Could be my last election: Pranab

Jangipur: Striking an emotional cord with his electorate, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday hinted that the Lok Sabha polls could be the last hurrah of his long political career.

"I am in the government for a long time. I have been a parliament member for 37-38 years. I have come to seek your support for one more time," the Congress heavyweight said at a public rally in his Jangipur constituency, 260 km from Kolkata.

"I am growing old. I don't know whether this will be my last election," Mukherjee said.

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Congress ridicules Third Front, says it lacks numbers

New Delhi, March 14 : External Affairs Minister and senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee Saturday ridiculed the concept of the Third Front and said the newly launched alliance will lack the numbers to form the next government.

“I do not understand the nomenclature the Third Front is using. What is their objective? Is it to form a non-Congress-non-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government? Has it ever happened in all these years?” he said. 

“We can understand a conglomeration of parties contesting the polls. But to form a government, you need 272 seats (in the 545-member Lok Sabha),” Mukherjee told reporters here.

“The Lok Sabha elections are a means to form a government, not an end,” he added.

The senior leader said it was only once in 1977, when a party other than the Congress, the Janata Party, had got a majority.

He said the Third Front partners were a mix of parties with varying ideologies. “To form a government you need a vision and a programme. They neither have a vision nor a programme. They only have prime ministers.”

Mukherjee was referring to the divergent views within the Third Front on its possible prime ministerial candidate.

The Left and regional parties Thursday launched the Third Front, comprising parties not aligned with the Congress or the BJP, at a rally in Karnataka to fight the Lok Sabha elections.

The Front leaders are meeting here Sunday at Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s residence amid speculation that she would pitch herself as the prime ministerial candidate of the front.

Mukherjee said the Congress had ruled the country for 45 years on its own and the ruling coalitions from 1989 to 1998 had the support of either the Congress or the BJP.

“I do not know if any of the (Third Front) parties will project (anybody) as the prime minister. I do not know whether they will have a common programme. If it is to make somebody prime minister, then it is like putting the cart before the horse.”

Asked if he was concerned over the emergence of the Third Front, Mukherjee replied: “Not at all.”

Replying to a question, he said: “There is nothing wrong in projecting a prime minister. The Congress is not doing so because we don’t need to, we already have a prime minister.”

Mukherjee, in response to another question, said the Congress “did not have a national alliance with any party because there is no national party” among its partners in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). “We have regional partnerships in several states.”

He parried a question about the possibility of the Left parties backing the Congress after the elections and said: “All I know is that they supported us from outside and helped form the government (in 2004). They were with us till July 2008.”

Asked if the plight of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka will affect the party’s prospects in Tamil Nadu, he reiterated his earlier stance and said: “We are deeply concerned over the issue and conveyed it to the (Sri Lanka) government that a military solution” would not work.

The external affairs minister also reiterated that Pakistan must dismantle the terror infrastructure on its soil and this should be done in a “verifiable and credible” manner.

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Alliance should lead to increase in seats: Pranab

Siliguri, Mar 7 : As differences still persist over seat-sharing between Congress and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections, state Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee today said a tie-up at the top level would not be effective at the grassroots if it did not lead to an increase in seats.

" Both parties should accept this in principle," Mukherjee, the External Affairs minister, told the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj North Bengal Convention here.

Mukherjee's comment came as the state Congress leadership demanded that the party high command should take up with Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee that seats offered to the party, except for the six it holds, were not winnable ones and were in CPI(M) strongholds.

Banerjee had claimed on March 5 that as per the formula arrived during talks with Mukherjee, of the 42 LS seats, the Trinamool would contest 28 and the Congress 14.

"The talks on the alliance between the two parties are continuing and the ultimate decision would be taken by the party high command," said Mukherjee. He had conveyed to the high command the details about the talks and a decision was expected shortly, he said.

On the total number of seats that the Congress would contest, he said of the 543 LS seats, the party would contest most. The party would not form an alliance at the national level, but have understanding at state level with other political parties, he added.

About the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills by the Gorkha Ganmukti Morcha, he said there was no question of a further division of West Bengal. The issue, he said, should be resolved through talks.

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