Front forced to rethink alliances

New Delhi: The six-party United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) betrayed the appearance of a house divided on the eve of its crucial meeting on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The Samajwadi Party, which heads the UNPA, may have a tough time convincing its partners at today's meeting to come to the aid of the ruling coalition but its 53 lawmakers hold the key to the survival of the government after its Left Front allies served an ultimatum over the deal.

The Samajwadi Party has already made up its mind to bail out the government even if the other constituents of the UNPA, namely the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Jharkhand Vimukti Morcha (JVM)), refuse to endorse its decision.

Questions are being raised about whether the crucial meeting is the beginning of the end for the UNPA.

While National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan briefed Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, the president and general secretary of the Samajwadi Party respectively, to allay their concerns about the contentious deal, the other UNPA constituents appears inclined to side with the Left Front.

TDP parliamentary party leader Yerran Naidu yesterday called on Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan at the party headquarters and reiterated his party's opposition to the nuclear deal.