New Delhi (IANS): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed confidence that the Congress and its allies would form the next government, but left the door open for the Left parties, saying “all options are open”.
“The Congress and its allies will form the next government,” a confident Manmohan Singh said when asked whether he was optimistic about forming the next government. He was speaking to senior journalists at his residence on the sidelines of the launch of IT icon N. Narayana Murthy’s book “A Better India, A Better World”.
“If we can form the government on our own, it’s so much the better. But if perchance there is a need for others to come in and support us, all options are open,” the prime minister said in reply to a question on whether he was open to the idea of taking support of the Left in case the numbers did not add up.
“We will cross the bridge when we come to it,” he added.
“We have worked with them in the past. Why can’t we work with them again? It’s all part of democratic politics,” he said when asked what gave him hope that he could work again with the Left parties which had fiercely opposed the India-US nuclear deal.
Last year, the Left parties withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over the nuclear deal, forcing a confidence vote in parliament that the UPA won.
The Communists have ruled out support to the UPA after the elections unless it puts the nuclear deal in cold storage. In their manifestoes, the Left parties have said that if a government is formed with their support, they will press for a review of the nuclear deal which they fear will suck India into a strategic alliance with the US.
