The government on Saturday heaved a sigh of relief with the Samajwadi Party clearly indicating that it would back it in a trial of strength in Parliament as the Bharatiya Janata Party mounted pressure asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately seek a vote of confidence.
A day after sewing up a deal with the Congress on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue, SP general secretary Amar Singh said, "Communalism is a bigger threat than imperialism. If our friends from the Left want to defeat the government with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the BJP, we don't want to say anything. But we can't do this work."
Amar Singh, who stopped short of formally announcing that SP has wrapped up a deal with the Congress, said, "L K Advani is a bigger threat than George W Bush."
On another day of hectic political activities, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Advani said the government has been reduced to a minority and demanded that the prime minister immediately seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha.
Brushing aside Advani's demand, Congress said, "No one has withdrawn support to the government. So, where is the question of trust vote?"
Party spokesman Manish Tiwary accused Advani of trying to create instability ahead of the prime minister's visit to Japan for the G-8 Summit early next week.
On their part, the Left leaders on Saturday met Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu in Kolkata to apprise him of the July 7 deadline given to thw government to specify whether it is going ahead with the nuclear deal.
The Left with 59 members in Lok Sabha have threatened to withdraw support to the government if it approaches the International Atomic Energy Agency to firm up a safeguards agreement.
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