Whatever may be the UPA’s calculations on when to call parliamentary elections — with regard to the link between the Indo-US nuclear deal and the withdrawal of Left support to the UPA that would result in elections — its leadership must be clearly aware that, in this game of poker, it is in a position to call the Left’s bluff.

Neither the Left nor the NDA can afford to bring the government down at this stage and have an election which will not benefit them. Advani, by paying his visit to Gandhi and Singh, has perhaps deliberately heightened the uncertainties for the Left. Gandhi has shown herself to be adept in the game of realpolitik.

Though the Congress pulled down the United Front government on the issue of the DMK’s participation in the aftermath of the Jain Commission’s report, today, she hails Karunanidhi as a pillar of the UPA. Advani advocates the thesis that better communication between the two national parties will benefit both and reduce their respective vulnerabilities before smaller parties, without such communication coming in the way of their competition with each other.

All these factors taken together constitute a challenge to the UPA leadership.

The writer is a senior defence analyst ambimani@gmail.com