New Delhi: Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu today (Dec 18, 2004) met UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and discussed issues in Common Minimum Programme (CMP) that need to be implemented on a priority basis, asserting that Manmohan Singh Government must last its full term.

At the 30-minute meeting, which was also attended by CPM (Communist Party of India Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, Basu made it clear that the UPA Government must last its full five-year term and, in order to ensure this, certain issues in the CMP should be dealt with on a priority basis, party sources said.

This is all the more necessary in view of the upcoming elections in three States, followed by some others, Basu told Sonia, according to the sources.

Basu is also understood to have stressed that differences on various issues, especially in the economic arena, should be discussed and sorted out only at the UPA Government-Left Coordination Committee, they said.

Describing the meeting as "a courtesy call", the sources said that Basu called on Sonia, as he could not attend the dinner hosted by her on Thursday (Dec 16, 2004) night.

Basu is in New Delhi to attend the Polit Bureau meeting of the CPM, which started yesterday (Dec 17, 2004).