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Basu won't apologise to Advani

West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu has refused to apologise to Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani for calling him a criminal.

Addressing an election meeting, the chief minister said there ''was nothing wrong in my statement, which hurted the prime minister, as cases were pending against Mr Advani''.

Basu said he might express sympathy to the prime minister for the 'inconvenience' caused due to floods in the state during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's election campaign in Calcutta.

The chief minister was confident that the Third Front would form the government at the Centre and lambasted the Congress for imposing this election on the nation.

''Our main aim is to prevent the BJP from coming back to power and thus we are forging alliances with other parties in states where our strength is not enough,'' he said.

UNI

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