Having reconciled to the fact that the UPA is keen to go to the IAEA, the withdrawal of support is just a matter of time. The Left parties would meet here on Friday to discuss the modalities of the support withdrawal plan, particularly the timing, while indications are that they will pull the plug only after the ruling coalition makes its decision public.

“We will demand tomorrow from the Government to make it clear when they are going to the IAEA. The fact that they are going is amply clear. Every step they are taking is in that direction. The question is when they are going to do it,” CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said.

While the CPI(M) and CPI are of the view that the support withdrawal should come after the announcement, the top leadership of Forward Bloc and RSP wanted the Left to sever its ties with the UPA soon after Friday’s meeting.

The CPI Central Secretariat, which met here on Thursday, decided to ask the other Left parties to consider the modalities of withdrawing support to the Government.

With the crisis over the deal dominating the political discourse, sources in the Left said they plan to inject the Government’s “failure” to contain inflation and violation of the CMP as sub-reasons for the withdrawal that it feels would strike a chord with the masses.

An indication to this effect was given by an editorial in CPI(M) mouthpiece “People’s Democracy” when it said that “many a promise contained in the CMP remained on paper (while) even those implemented, under pressure from the Left, suffer from bureaucratic hurdles and corruption”.

“It needs to be remembered that the CPI(M) and other Left parties extended outside support to the UPA government on the basis of the CMP. This support, therefore, cannot be taken for granted, if the CMP is violated,” it said.

The CPI echoed the views saying, “Those at the helm of the Government by doggedly pursuing the neo-liberal policies have totally mismanaged the national economy resulting in rising inflation, unimaginable disparities, chronic crisis in agriculture and growing unemployment in the country.”