I never asked Amar to support nuke deal: Somnath

He was reacting to Amar Singh’s claim that SP had changed its stand on the nuclear deal and supported the UPA government during a trust vote last year at the behest of Chatterjee despite “bitter relations” with Congress.

Chatterjee asserted that he had “never made any observation at any point of time about the merits or otherwise of the nuclear deal” and there was no need for him to offer any advice in this matter.

“I am extremely surprised to learn that Amar Singh has stated that I had requested his party to support the government on the nuclear deal,” Chatterjee said.

“I am constrained to say that the statement of my good friend is without any basis or foundation whatsoever,” he added.

Earlier,Amar Singh had said that,”Somnath Chatterjee asked us to support the UPA government on the nuclear deal,by forgetting all the acrimony. Before we supported the Congress-led coalition,for four and a half years there were bitter relations between SP and Congress. However,Somnath Da asked me to support the deal for the sake of national interest.”

Noting that the Speaker had not approached SP for support to the government,Singh said: “We used to meet often as I respect him a lot. And it was during our meetings with him that he suggested to us that the nuclear deal was in the national interest.”

This is for the first time that SP has given credit to Chatterjee for its turnaround on the issue. Earlier,it had said that it changed its stand at the behest of former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

SP,which had 39 members in the dissolved Lok Sabha,saved the UPA government from falling in July last year as it gave support when Left parties withdrew over the nuclear deal.

Singh said he has a lot of respect for Chatterjee and SP even “desperately wanted him to be the President”.