FM skips Fund-Bank meet to focus on polls

The upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal may be a curious case at international political fora as the fate of the longest-serving democratically elected communist government hangs in balance. The poll, however, has already made an impact in the international financial circles as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has opted out of a crucial meeting at Washington as he is busy campaigning in his Bengal backyard.

Mukherjee was scheduled to attend the annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on April 15-17 at Washington where top economic ministers and financial leaders from around the globe are meeting for a brainstorming session.

The world leaders will ponder over crucial issues such as high food and fuel prices, political unrest in the Arab world and apprehensions of rising inflation in emerging markets. Finance Ministers of G20 (India is a part of this group) were also scheduled to hold a special meeting on April 14 to discuss these issues separately.

But, the government has conveyed its inabilities as Mukherjee found it more prudent to spend time running around in poll-bound Bengal to ensure victory for the Congress-Trinamool alliance.

Not only Mukherjee, key Congress ministers like A K Antony (Kerela) and P Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu), too, were busy in their home states. According to sources, many EGoM and GoM meetings have been deferred to accommodate the leaders’ election schedule.

Mukherjee, however, is scheduled to attend the Asian Development Bank annual meeting in Vietnam next month after the first four phases of polling are over in Bengal.

Mukherjee was out of Delhi for almost a week before coming back to the capital to attend crucial meetings including a Cabinet Committee on Security and the Lok Pal drafting committee. After campaigning in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala, Mukherjee is focused in his home state which will go for a six-phase poll from April 18. Apart from accompanying Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Mukherjee will independently hold a series of rallies and road shows across the length and breadth of the state.

Before leaving for Kolkata, the Finance Minister told one of his aide, “I am not a bureaucrat. I am a politician. So, don’t keep heavy official engagements during the election season.”