Left Parties submit withdrawal of support letters to President

New Delhi, July 9 : Four Left parties - CPI, CPI (M), Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India (RSP) submitted their separate letters of withdrawal of support to the Congress-led UPA Government to President Pratibha Patil here today.

A senior Left party leader on Tuesday said they had to give separate letters as they had sent separate intimations announcing support to the UPA in 2004 when the Manmohan Singh Government was formed.

Accusing the government of double standards, the Left said the UPA Government has on the one hand decided to convene a meeting with the Left to discuss the US-India civil nuclear cooperation issue, while on the other, the Prime Minister announced in Japan that his government would go ahead on the deal.

Anticipating the withdrawal of support by the Left, the Government has lined up support from the Samajwadi Party to provide it with a parliamentary majority, and hopes to avoid early elections.

The Left had been threatening to pull out their support to the government for quite some time if the latter approached the IAEA for an India-specific safeguards agreement.

ANI