New Delhi: Expressing hope that Indo-US relations would experience "a marked change" with Barack Obama taking over as President, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat has said there was a possibility of starting talks on "reworking" the nuclear deal if the Third Front came to power here.
"I think with a Democratic administration, Obama administration, we can talk about reworking this deal," he told a private news channel.
The Marxist leader, who led the Left to steadfastly oppose the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal leading to withdrawal of support to the UPA government, was optimistic that if the Third Front came to power after the polls, Indo-US relations would be "reset and it will be on a better footing".
Asked whether Obama would be willing to rework it, Karat said, "That's why I said, we look with expectation to President Obama."
To a question as to which bits of the 123 Agreement could be reworked, he said, "Well, I can't go into the details, but the Hyde Act brought in certain provisions into the 123 Agreement, which were unacceptable for us."
On whether the Left would demand scrapping of the deal if the Obama administration refused to renegotiate it, he said, "I think the understanding which was there with President Bush got this agreement through. I think there will be no serious problems with the new administration if we can get things reworked."