RSP leader Abani Roy, who questioned the need for a political mechanism to address the concerns of the Left parties on the nuclear deal, will not be representing his party in the committee. RSP Kerala unit General Secretary T J Chandrachoodan will be representing the party in the panel.

“I am preoccupied with party work and I am constrained for time to be there on the panel,” Roy told The Indian Express.

Roy’s was the only discordant voice about the panel among the four Left parties that met the Congress interlocutors, Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony and Ahmed Patel.

After his 30-minute meeting with the Congress leaders, Roy had said, “What is the need for a committee when we are opposed to the deal? Differences may persist even after it is formed.”

However, Roy assured the Congress leaders that he would discuss the matter with his party leadership and convey the decision to them.

“Besides the nuclear issue, we are unhappy with the Government’s performance on the domestic front too,” he had said.

The Left parties will have six members on the panel. “We will be six from the Left parties, and the rest of the panel is up to the Congress,” Prakash Karat said earlier in the day. The Left members would be Karat and Sitaram Yechury from the CPI(M), A B Bardhan and D Raja from the CPI, Debabrata Biswas from All India Forward Bloc and Chandrachoodan from the RSP.