New Delhi, July 4: After getting the Samajwadi Party on board, an elated Congress on Friday virtually dared the Left and the Opposition to topple the government.  The meetings of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday were a turning point for the UPA. Their proclamation of backing the controversial nuclear deal with the US divided the anti-BJP and anti-Congress forces and boosted the morale of the Prime Minister’s supporters.

The SP is now ready to seek its price for supporting the Manmohan Singh government for a few months. Shortly after the Left released a letter to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee asking him to convey the government’s decision by July 7, parliamentary affairs minister Vayalar Ravi and AICC media department chairman M. Veerappa Moily claimed separately that the UPA government was stable and enjoyed a majority. “Government has the numbers, we are ready to prove it in the Lok Sabha,” Mr Ravi said. 

The Congress said Mr Mukherjee would reply to the Left’s ultimatum but remained non-committal about the timing. Rejecting suggestions of an “unholy alliance”, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “The SP and the Congress have never been mutually untouchable in the same sense as the Left and the BJP or the Congress and the BJP.” Asked whether the bonhomie with the SP would extend to UP, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “The current contextual developments were at the national level. I have said nothing at the regional level. However, once cooperation and convergence starts at the national level, it is not unnatural of it to assume wider proportions subsuming regional levels also.”

The Congress is tight-lipped on the “give and take” formula between the government and the SP.  Mr Amar Singh said his party was not looking for Cabinet berths. “We are not wheeler-dealers. We are not here to join any Cabinet. All our politics is about the national interest,” he said. “There was no pressure, no blackmail, no offer, no deal behind the deal, no conditionality. We have not yet given any support to the government,” Mr Singh told CNN-IBN.  Asked whether the SP would join the government, he said, “Absolutely not.  Where is the question because I have not even said we will support the government or not.”

New Delhi, July 4: The Left on Friday put the government on notice, but once again failed to take the final step: announce the date of withdrawal. “We wish to know definitely whether the government is proceeding  to seek the approval of the safeguards agreement by the board of governors of the IAEA. Please let us know by July 7,” a letter from the four Left parties to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee stated.

Pushed into isolation, the Left has the following options — withdraw support if the government goes to the IAEA or, if the government refuses to react, hold another meeting on July 8 to try and arrive at a decision. The Left parties have also threatened to launch a nationwide agitation from July 14 against the nuclear deal and inflation.  The Left parties have been unable to take the final step since the CPI(M) and the CPI had repeatedly issued statements that the Left would dislodge the government only after it went to the IAEA. “If we withdraw support at this juncture, we could be accused of taking a premature step,” a Left functionary said.

The Congress reacted sharply, with party leader Veerappa Moily criticising the Marxists’ “desperate” moves. Virtually taking them head-on, he told a TV channel: “We have the numbers to go to the IAEA.”

Hyderabad, July 4: The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, hinted on Friday that a good number of serving Congress MLAs may be denied tickets in the coming Assembly elections. They would include those who had lost their credibility among voters. This would be ascertained by a survey. Others may lose seats because of the delimitation of constituencies.

Dr Reddy, however, told this correspondent that he could not specify the number who would be denied re-nomination. “My party’s USP would be the performance of the government and the development and welfare measures it has taken up,” he said. “We see no threat from any existing or upcoming political parties in the State.” He also hinted that the Congress would have to go it alone in the elections. “I am still unable to understand why they (the CPI, the CPI (M) and the TRS) parted ways with my party,” he said. “I cannot rule out the possibility of reviving ties with them, but in case that doesn’t happen, we are prepared to face the elections alone.”

The Chief Minister said that the proposed political parties of actor Chiranjeevi and Telangana protagonist Devender Goud would not pose any threat to the prospects of the Congress. “We are the reigning champions now and there are number of parties opposing us,” he said.

New Delhi/ Hyderabad, July 4: The Union women and child development minister, Ms Renuka Chowdhury, on Friday granted permission to the government’s women and child development department to take up inter-country adoption of children. Inter-country adoptions from Andhra Pradesh were banned after several child sale rackets were exposed in the state in 2002.

Adoption experts and NGOs opposed the decision, saying it could open the doors to child trafficking.  Ms Gita Ramaswamy, who has done considerable research on child adoption, said, “I don’t think there is any scope to send children from Andhra Pradesh for inter-country adoption. There is a backlog of two years with a large number of parents in waiting list in the state to adopt children.”