Crucial UNPA meet today over Indo-US nuclear deal

New Delhi, July 3 : Leaders of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) will meet here today to decide the future of the third front, and also which way the Samajwadi Party (SP) would go in the event of voting in the Parliament over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

National Security Adviser MK Narayanan had met SP leader Amar Singh yesterday to brief him on the technicalities of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Singh said that a final decision (about the future of the third front) would be taken only after today's UNPA meet.

He said that BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who called on him yesterday, suggested that the Left parties, SP and BSP should along with BJP form a block and vote against the Government on the deal.

He quoted the BJP leader as saying that the line of Left parties and the BJP was one and the same, but, he added, the SP's line was different as it felt that communalism was a bigger danger.

The standoff over the nuclear deal between the Congress-led UPA government and the Left parties continues amid speculations that the UPA Government might go in for voting over the nuclear deal in the parliament.

The developments over the past few days have given enough hints that the UPA is on the lookout for a replacement of its Left allies, who have been threatening to withdraw support if it moves ahead with the deal.

The Communists are opposing the deal, saying it "compromises India's sovereignty and security" and have threatened to withdraw vital support from the ruling coalition if the government moved ahead with it.

ANI