Pressure is building up on both PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi from within the Congress and its non-Left allies to keep the deal in cold storage.
NEW DELHI: Even as the UPA-Left top brass effected a temporary truce over the Indo-US nuclear agreement, pressure is building up on both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi from within the Congress and its non-Left allies to keep the deal in the cold storage for sometime.
A majority in the seven-member Congress core group, which had a series of meetings over the impasse, has advocated a cautious approach on the nuke deal and dealing with the Left. In their meeting on Tuesday, they told both the PM and Sonia to take a “political decision” on the issue.
Not just the Left, the government cannot ignore the pleas of its key allies such as the RJD, DMK and the NCP to avert a mid-term poll, some core group members argued.
While in the 15-member UPA-Left nuclear committee regional satraps like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Pawar argued against forcing early elections on the people, DMK chief M Karunanidhi has been in touch with Lalu Yadav to put pressure on the government against any hasty move on the nuclear front.
Though Sonia Gandhi did not react to Prakash Karat’s threat that Left would pull the rug, when he called on her on Monday night to apprise her of the CPI(M) central committee’s deliberations on the nuke deal and the consequent political crisis, sources said she is weighing all options carefully.
Indications are that the government has decided to go slow on the deal. The understanding is that the government will go ahead with operationalising the deal only after the panel submits its findings.
After the committee meeting on Tuesday, Karat, in reply to a question, said: “We may have many meetings.” The Congress group also comprises Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh and Ahmed Patel. Sources said in the core group, Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Antony and Patel are for cautious approach.
Antony, the most vocal among them, on Tuesday told the core group that even after a snap poll, the Congress will have to do business with the Left and that the Left is a better option than Mayavati’s BSP.
Moreover, it was argued once the UPA is dissolved in the event of a mid-term poll there is no guarantee that all the allies will return to the Congress fold. Parties like the DMK, PMK and the LJP had earlier supped with the BJP.
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