The Chief Minister said, “Manmohan Singh is a good person but he is a bad Prime Minister. And we have now decided not to support the Congress-led UPA or the BJP-controlled NDA government at the Centre and we are again trying to form a third alternative minus the Congress and the BJP, to replace the UPA after the elections”

He refused to comment as to what would be his party’s stand if the UPA or NDA did not get a majority to form the government after the elections. “It is now too early to make any comment”, he remarked.

Bhattacherjee denied categorically that his government was getting any extra privileges from the Manmohan Singh government for supporting them from the outside.

On the contrary, he alleged, many of their genuine demands were still ignored. “In the economic matters and many other fields, we are not supporting the UPA but we appreciate the Centre’s foreign policy towards Nepal, Myanmar and Bangla Desh on the restoration of the democratic governments in those neighbouring countries,” he said.

Bhattacharjee in his hour-long press meet, answered a barrage of questions, relating to the Centre-state relations, Nandigram and Singur, the Darjeeling crisis, the electricity problem vis-à-vis the Governor’s “voluntary power cuts at the Raj Bhavan”, the state’s future industrial and agricultural policies, the panchayat poll and the CPM’s present strained relations with the partner parties etc.