Mayawati deserves to be PM more than Advani, Manmohan: Bardhan

New Delhi, March 20 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati deserves to be prime minister more than L.K. Advani or Manmohan Singh, according to Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan.

'Mayawati is more deserving of the prime minister's chair than (Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate) Advani or (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh,' he told NDTV in an interview.

He said the prime minister would have to be chosen by consensus by Third Front leaders if they came on top of the April-May elections. Among them Mayawati was 'certainly a prominent candidate', he said.

'(AIADMK chief Jayaram) Jayalalitha has no problem with Mayawati's PM aspirations,' he added.

Asked whether the Left could count on Mayawati not to abandon them after the elections, he said: 'Once bitten, twice shy, Mayawati will never join hands with the BJP again.'

The Left parties, Bardhan said, were in touch with some Congress allies including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and Lok Janasakti Party's (LJP) Ram Vilas Paswan.

'With Paswan, I am so regularly in touch, just yesterday he sent me four kinds of fish!' Bardhan said, terming Paswan 'a good friend'.

He had a word of praise for Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Nitish Kumar as well. 'Nitish is a good man, but he is still on the other side.'

Asked if the Left would consider supporting a Congress-led government to keep the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) out of power, he said: 'The need for this will not arise. Currently, the Third Front is at number one position, with the Congress at number two, and the BJP far behind.'