Pranab Mukherjee meets Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, July 13 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today met the leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist and former West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, in Kolkata.

Mukherjee met the CPI(M) patriarch today ahead of the July 22 trust vote in the Lok Sabha and explained the reasons leading to the break-up of the 51-month United Progressive Alliance-Left coalition.

"I met Jyoti babu for two reasons--to explain the circumstances under which the coalition collapsed and also to express my best wishes to the CPI(M) leader turning 95 recently," Mukherjee told reporters in Kolkata.

"We consider Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjit the architects of the coalition between the UPA and Left parties. So, I think as leader of the coalition in the Lok Sabha it was my moral duty to explain to Basu as to why we could not run the coalition government," Mukherjee added.

He further said whether the government will survive or not will depend on the voting in the floor of the Parliament but it was his moral duty to apprise a leader of Basu's stature about the recent political developments leading to the Left's withdrawal of support to the Manmohan Singh led UPA Government. (ANI)