Political parleys on, Karat meets Pawar

New Delhi, Jun 20 (UNI) Hectic political activities are on to defuse the crisis arising out of the standoff between the UPA government and the Left parties over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, with both sides reaching out to the allies.

While External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is making all efforts to keep the N-Pact ''alive'' and also ensure the survival of the UPA government, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar this morning and discussed the current political scenario.

Mr Karat, a known hardliner, met the Agriculture Minister over breakfast at the latter's residence and explained the Left's viewpoint.

Sources told UNI the Left is keen that Mr Pawar should mediate and diffuse the situation, as they did not want to do anything which would destabilise the Manmohan Singh government and force early general elections on the nation.

''We hope that the government will survive and we are making serious efforts in this direction, even as our firm opposition to the deed stands,'' Mr Karat told journalists, after he addressed a seminar at the Kerala House today.

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