Left parties awaiting Pranab Mukherjee's reply: Karat

Kolkata, Jul 5 (UNI) Amid reports of impending withdrawal of support to the UPA government, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today said the Left parties were awaiting a reply to their letter to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that set July 7 as the deadline to spell out whether the government was going ahead to finalise the Indo-US nuke deal.

''We have sent a letter to Mr Mukherjee yesterday and we are waiting for his reply,'' Mr Karat said before meeting veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu at his Salt Lake residence.

Mr Karat, who was accompanied by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the party's state Secretary Biman Basu, held a closed door meeting with Mr Jyoti Basu for about 45 minutes.

Party sources said they apprised the nonagenarian patriarch of the party of latest developments on the nuclear deal issue and discussed the stand of the Left parties.

However, none of the leaders talked to reporters after the meeting.

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