New Delhi: The Left parties on Tuesday withdrew support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led government after failing to resolve their dragging differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat made the announcement at the Capital even as Manmohan Singh was away attending the G8 Summit in Japan.
Karat said the decision would be formally conveyed to President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday afternoon, a day ahead of the Prime Minister's return from Japan.
With the Left meeting President Patil on Wednesday to withdraw its support to the UPA Government, the Congress has called for an emergency meeting at 10 Janpath - the residence of Sonia Gandhi.
Here is a look at some of the key players in the nuclear game and what their stands were during the Congress-Left stand-off over the deal.
"Now, the difference is that the honeymoon period is over... It is only a question of filing divorce papers if it comes to that end. The Prime Minister knows it and he is the one person who knows it." — CPI-M General Secretary, A B Bardhan
"I don't want to rake up the past, was it not the responsibility of my progressive Communist friends to force Congress to take the SP in the UPA when we were left alone and isolated?" — Samajwadi Party General Secretary, Amar Singh
"As the time for the ninth meeting of the UPA-Left Committee on the nuclear deal approached, the country was plunged into a political crisis once again on the future of the nuclear deal. What is the cause for this ongoing crisis? The answer lies squarely in the Prime Minister's renewed bid to go to the IAEA for seeking the approval of the Board of Governors on the text of the Safeguards Agreement." — CPI-M General Secretary, Prakash Karat
"I'm not worried about the Left leaving us. Various political parties make assessments of the current situation and sometimes they criticise the economic policies, sometimes they criticise the failure of the Government to contain communal forces. That is the reason why they are upset with the Government. I'm just saying that it is their assessment." — External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee
"I am hopeful that there will be time to take the deal to its logical conclusion. We have been assured that once we take the decision to go to the IAEA the process will move pretty fast." — Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh
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