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Fernandes urges Cong to join 'mahajot'

Zakia Maryam in Calcutta

Defence Minister George Fernandes today said that the Congress has no option but to join the anti-Left grand alliance mooted by the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.

He was speaking to reporters after commissioning the Indian Navy's latest guided-missile frigate INS Brahmaputra at the GRSE jetty in Calcutta.

The minister said the Congress must pay heed to the advice given by Lal Kishenchand Advani and join the 'mahajot'.

Talking to newsmen in Indore yesterday, Advani had said the Congress should respond to Mamata's initiatives ahead of the municipal and assembly polls in the state

Answering a question about the controversy surrounding the purchase of Sukhoi aircraft, Fernandes said his ministry has no plans to scrap the deal. He, however, refused to set a time frame for the delivery of the aircraft.

Outlining the Indian Navy's future plans, Fernandes said that INS Brahmaputra was the first of the nine warships that the Navy would be commissioning this year. "This includes two destroyers, one submarine and one aircraft carrier."

On the threat perceptions along the Line of Control, the defence minister said there hasn't been a perceptible change so far as the LoC was concerned. He, however, admitted there had been 'some movement' in the recent past which 'the media wrongly interpreted.'

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