SP-iffy politics: Amar meets NSA, Left cries foul

POLITICAL POTBOILER: SP has assured UPA of its support in Parliament as the Left is all set to pull the plug.

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New Delhi: The first official meeting between the SP and Congress on the Indo-US nuclear deal will be held on Wednesday.

National Security Advisor M K Narayanan is expected to meet SP General Secretary Amar Singh to brief the party on the deal.

The meeting, which comes after Narayanan reportedly paid a quiet trip to Tehran on July 1, is slated for 1700 hours IST at an undisclosed destination.

The NSA's meeting with Singh follows his much talked about close door meeting with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee who briefed him on the technicalities of the deal.

Earlier top sources in the Congress had said that the SP has assured the UPA of its support in Parliament in the event of a confidence vote.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who holds the key to the survival of the Government and the deal, has said that his party is willing to reconsider its position on the nuclear deal in the light of fresh inputs from the UPA.

The UNPA, of which the 39-member SP is part, meets on July 3, after which Mulayam will spell out his position. A day later, on July 4, the Left parties will meet to take what could be the final decision to pull out from the UPA Government.

On Tuesday, the SP did not officially move from the non-committal position it has been taking on backing the nuclear deal. But Mulayam repeated that his party had “no enemies”.

Significantly, the PM met President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday. The deadlock with the Left apparently figured in the talks, though the Rashtrapati Bhavan release made no mention of it.