'Nuke deal mission': Karunanidhi to leave for Delhi on Jul 11

Chennai, Jun 23 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi will visit New Delhi on July 11 on his mission to broker peace between the Congress and the Left parties over the impasse on Indo-US nuclear deal.

According to Mr Karunanidhi's programme, released here today, the Chief Minister would leave for New Delhi on July 11 for a book release function of former Prime Minister and his close friend V P Singh.

He is likely to stay in New Delhi for a couple of days as his next programme in Chennai was only on July 14.

Official sources, however, said, the Chief Minister would utilise the occasion to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Left party leaders to iron out differences between them on the nuke issue.

Mr Karunanidhi, whose DMK is a key constituent of the Congress led UPA at the Centre, had already held one round of talks with the Left party leaders Prakash Karat and D Raja here last evening.

He had already said his Delhi Mission was aimed at saving the nation rather than saving the Congress and Left parties, as any rift between the two would pave the way for communal forces to return to the centrestage.

The Left parties had set June 25, as the deadline for the government to pronounce its stand with regard to its proposed meeting with the IAEA Board of Governor's on nuclear safeguards.

The fact that Mr Karunandihi is undertaking his Delhi mission gave the impression that he had persuaded the Left parties not to precipitate the matter till then.

He had also told the Left party leaders to think about arriving at an amicable solution.

UNI WS-GV AM AS1930