So far, Ansari hasn’t switched, claim SP leaders, while Atiq Ahmed has already said he will vote against the UPA government.

Phoolpur MP Ahmed, expelled from the Samajwadi Party after his name figured in BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, had voted in favour of Left nominee Ansari defying a party whip to vote for UNPA candidate Rashid Masood.

When asked why the Left had not opposed Yadav and Shahabuddin voting during the Presidential election, CPM Central Committee member Nilotpal Basu said, “That we will have to see, those circumstances were different and not the same as this.”

CPM leaders claim the party did not include the names of anti-UPA jailbird MPs because they were facing trial and were not convicted.

This argument rings hollow given that Shahabuddin was convicted in May, two months before he voted in the Presidential elections in July last year.

Significantly, the BSP, which has made common cause with the Left to oppose the nuclear deal, is wooing both Ansari, Ahmed, and Umakant Yadav, who was expelled from the party earlier for criminal activities.