Mayavati with Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. (PTI)

New Delhi, May 26: Mayavati today signalled an end to the “confrontation” between Delhi and Lucknow, but the truce came with a price tag.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister handed the Prime Minister a long wish list, mainly relating to infrastructure in her state, before sitting down to a cheerful lunch with him and Sonia Gandhi.

Later, she declared her meeting with Manmohan Singh would “end the situation of confrontation between the Centre and Uttar Pradesh”.

Mayavati had yesterday hinted the Bahujan Samaj Party would support the United Progressive Alliance’s candidate for the presidential poll though she didn’t name the nominee of her choice. The widening chasm between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress has made BSP support that much more crucial.

Sonia’s presence at the lunch, hosted by the Prime Minister, confirmed that the Centre’s courtship of Mayavati would not end in a hurry.

“Of course, they discussed the presidential election. Why else would Sonia be there?” an aide said but would not reveal if names had been mentioned.

Last night, Mayavati’s party members authorised her to decide whether the BSP would back the UPA-Left nominee. A Rajya Sabha member from the BSP today said: “Our leader gave nothing away on whom she had in mind. But this much is certain, she will not let the UPA down.”

But Mayavati drove a hard bargain. Flanked by her cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh and political aide Satish C. Mishra, she asked Manmohan to reduce the interest on a Rs 15,000-crore infrastructure loan the state was struggling to repay.

Sources said she next demanded an immediate go-ahead for the Taj international airport-cum-aviation centre, sandwiched between the western Uttar Pradesh cities of Aligarh and Bulandshahr.

The Rs 50,000-crore project, billed as India’s answer to Heathrow, is to have an international airport that will take some of the load off Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. It will also boast a freight carrier, a mall, a golf course, an academic centre and an amusement park.

The project was cleared by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government during one of Mayavati’s previous stints as chief minister, but remained stalled since 2004 when the UPA came to power.

Mayavati also asked for a leg-up to eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Buddhist circuit, spanning Sarnath, Kushinagar and Sravasti, to help the state compete with Bihar’s Buddhist hotspots for foreign revenue.

Last of all, she demanded that all the pending projects under the Centre’s Urban Renewal Mission be completed fast.

BSP sources said Mayavati might reveal her decision on the presidential candidate to the Prime Minister and Sonia over the phone next week.

She isn’t likely to be in Delhi for the National Development Council meeting, but might send her agriculture minister as the theme is farming.