The most important constituent of the Left Front, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has called for a meeting of its Politburo on June 29, while Forward Bloc has called a meeting of its central secretariat on July 3. Top Left Front leaders said their assessment was that the government was determined to go ahead with the agreement.

The only thing, they said, that would satisfy them and permit the government to carry on to negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was a public assurance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the 123 Agreement with the United States would not be operationalised.

They were confident that the government would not agree to this, and therefore, elections were likely in the next six months.

The next major UPA constituent, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) represented by party leader and Shipping and Surface Transport Minister TR Baalu, met Congress President Sonia Gandhi for 30 minutes and after the meeting, mouthed homilies like "if there is a problem, there is a solution". He said he saw no "imminent threat" to the Congress-led government. "I do not think there will be any early election," he said.

Lok Janashakti party (LJP) leader Ramvilas Paswan said the government and he personally would talk to the Left leaders to explain to them that the agreement was in national interest.

A top Congress leader said one element of the UPA's strategy would be to prove to the Left that its constituents had been talking in different voices and that there was no clarity on what the Left wanted from the government on the deal. However, he ruled out showing the Left parties a draft of the IAEA and said the Left itself had never really asked to see it.

The maximum concession that the government was willing to offer to the Left parties was the assurance that they would be consulted before the draft was taken by India to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the powerful grouping of countries that regulates the world trade in uranium.

However, his strong impression was that the government was continuing to pursue the agreement because not doing so would badly dent India's credibility and standing abroad.

There was plenty of evidence that there had been no change in the Left stand. CPI leader AB Bardhan said the Manmohan Singh government should set its priority on fighting soaring inflation. "The CPI's suggestion to cut taxes and not raise oil prices has gone unheeded," he said.

Asked what the government could do without the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Left parties, he said that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that a minority government could not sign the nuclear deal.

The other potentially big player in the drama, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav made it plain that his party was going to take no decision on the agreement without consulting the so-called Third Front constituents.

As the Third Front, which is to meet on July 3 to take a decision, was formed comprising viscerally anti-Congress forces like the Telugu Desam party (TDP), it is unlikely that either the SP or the others in UNPA will support the deal.

In the course of firefighting with the Left, the Congress offered as a olive branch, an all-party meeting on the nuclear agreement. However, this proposal was rejected by the Left because it was seen merely as a ruse by the government to isolate the Left.