By IANS,
New Delhi : Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to discuss ways of breaking the impasse over the India-US nuclear deal.
Left parties, however, stuck to their stand against the deal, reiterating that any move by the government to go to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to discuss the India-specific safeguards – the first step towards operationalising the nuclear deal – will cost the Congress its government.
Pawar has been in constant touch with the Left leaders to find a way out of the tangle.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners Monday stepped up pressure on the government to resolve the political crisis.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, Lok Janshakti Party leader and Chemicals and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, and Pawar met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and urged her to avert a snap poll.
Lalu Prasad made it clear that he did not want early elections even though his party backed the nuclear deal.
“We do not want early elections even though nuclear energy is good for the country,” said Lalu Prasad after his meeting with the Congress president.