Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the Left's decision would not affect the United Progressive Alliance's stability.
"I don't think the Left's move will affect the stability of the government," a seemingly-confident prime minister, who is in Japan to attend the G-8 summit, said in response to a question by a foreign journalist in a hotel lobby. He also added that India would go to the International Atomic Energy Agency to get an India-specific safeguards agreement soon.
Unfazed, the Congress party in New Delhi said there was no threat to the Manmohan Singh-led ministry and that it would prove its majority in Parliament."The government will prove that it has the numbers in the Parliament," Congress Spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters.
Asked about its new supporters as the Left has withdrawn its backing to the government, Tiwari said, "UPA is united and the the government is stable."
On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that India would go to the IAEA, which triggered the Left pullout, he said the Prime Minister did not say anything which we have not been saying for the last four-and-a-half years".
"When the entire nation is mourning those killed in the Kabul blast, the Left has chosen to make the announcement. It is most unfortunate. They think their prestige is more important than the nation's prestige," AICC media department chairman Veerappa Moily said minutes after the Left's announcement.
Party chief Sonia Gandhi called an emergency meeting of senior leaders to take stock of the situation.
With PTI inputs
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