By IANS,
Agartala : Regional parties have “no uniformity on national issues and no all India perspective”, External Affairs Minister and Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said Thursday, reiterating the views of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“The prime minister rightly said that regional parties have regional perspectives on all-India issues and these different viewpoints create problems,” Mukherjee told journalists here in the Tripura capital.
Mukherjee was here Thursday afternoon to campaign for the Congress for the April 23 Lok Sabha elections to the two constituencies in Tripura.
“Diplomacy, foreign policy, security, development (are) among five to six issues (on which) regional parties have no uniform perspective,” he said.
Manmohan Singh had Wednesday said that regional parties were responsible for several states remaining economically backward. The comments triggered angry responses from regional parties.
As for the prime minister’s indication of a possible alliance with Left parties after the elections, Mukherjee said: “To form the government at the centre requires the support of 272 MPs. We are now in a political battle. During war a soldier does not explore reasons, his only aim is to win the war.
“The Congress is confident of forming the government. It has no national level alliance with any party. We can tell you everything clearly after the election,” Mukherjee told a reporter.
Mukherjee said that after the terror attack in Mumbai, he wrote to 127 foreign ministers and spoke on telephone with three dozen ministers, providing evidence about the Pakistani involvement in the attack. “International opinion was built up in favour of India.”