By IANS
New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Saturday met United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the second time in as many days at a launch hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
On a visit to the national capital for the first time after winning the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections earlier this month, Mayawati had Friday evening met the UPA chairperson at her 10, Janpath residence and was with her for well over an hour.
At the end of her Delhi visit, political observers were almost certain that her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was with the Congress-led UPA on the issue of the presidential candidate, ruling out possibility of an agreement between her party and the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the matter.
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's term ends in July.
The BSP national executive Friday had authorised Mayawati to take appropriate decision on the issue, said party sources.
When queried by media persons, the BSP chief refused to comment on the matter and said she would be able to say something only after consultations with her party's MPs and legislators. "Whatever decision my party takes would be taken in a democratic manner," she said Friday.
During her meeting with the prime minister at his residence, Mayawati discussed Uttar Pradesh's pending projects and sought to revive some of the projects that she had taken up during her earlier stints at Uttar Pradesh chief minister but were abandoned by her successors.
These included Taj International Airport at Jewar on the border of Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Gautam Budh Nagar.
In particular, she urged the central government to help revive the project for an international airport at Jewar in western Uttar Pradesh, which had been cleared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the defence ministry and the Prime Minister's Office before it was shelved by her successors.
Mayawati also requested the prime minister to reduce the rate of interest on an infrastructure loan of Rs.150 billion to the state.
On Sunday, she is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami.