Sontosh dares leftists to withdraw support from UPA

Agartala, Feb 20 (UNI) Union Heavy Industry and Public Enterprise Minister Santosh Mohan Deb today asked the Left parties to withdraw support from the UPA government, 'if they have guts'.

Mr Deb, who is in Tripura to campaign for the February 23 assembly polls, said, ''The UPA government will go for the Indo-US nuclear deal. But if somebody comes with a logical amendment then the government will consider it.

''It does not mean that we will sacrifice India's economic prospect for the Left parties or others. After discussions with the experts of concerned subjects, we have decided to go for the deal,'' Mr Deb explained adding it would open the prospect of nuclear energy sector as well as employment opportunity.

He also stated that they were ready to face mid-term poll 'at any moment' but said the Leftists "had come to us only to contain communal forces from coming to power".

On the Tripura election, he said there was a strong indication that the Congress-INPT combine would come to power and promised to gift a golden Tripura.

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