With the Left parties joining the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Third Front in rejecting the India-United States civil nuclear cooperation deal, the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Friday is expected to be stormy.
The beginning of the month-long session will coincide with the vice presidential election, in which the victory of United Progressive Alliance-Left nominee Hamid Ansari appears to be certain.
Despite the Left parties, the key outside supporters of the UPA, rejecting the nuclear deal and thereby joining the opposition BJP and the UNPA on the issue, the ruling Congress has put up a brave face and dismissed projections that this could destabilise the government.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will make a suo moto statement on the deal on Monday and Congress leaders appeared hopeful that the situation would be tackled by convincing their allies that the agreement was in the best interests of the nation.
The BJP is training its guns on the government and has demanded the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the text of the draft 123 Agreement to implement the civil nuclear deal with the US. It also wants parliamentary approval to be secured before the deal is signed.
The BJP has dubbed the pact as an assault on the country's nuclear sovereignty and its foreign policy options and made it clear that it would be "unable to accept this agreement as finalised".
The UNPA, popularly known as the Third Front, has made its opposition to the deal known and alleged that the government has "mortgaged" the country's sovereignty.
The eight-party alliance, which pulled in different directions in the presidential poll, will raise the police firing in Andhra Pradesh in Parliament in an attempt to corner the Congress and put up a united front.
With several states hit by floods, the Left parties and some others are expected to raise a discussion on this issue.
Mohammed Salim, CPI-M's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said the Left would also raise the issue of corruption in its various aspects, including the Ashok Malhotra affair that has rocked the national capital and seen the Congress and the BJP trading charges.
With assembly polls in Gujarat round the corner, the BJP's detractors may use the occasion to raise issues like justice for those affected by riots in that state after the Godhra incident as well as those in Mumbai who were affected in the wake of the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992.
Also on the agenda of the Left parties will be the plight of unorganised labour and price rise.
Among the prominent bills likely to be introduced during the session are the Unorganised Workers Social Security Bill and another envisaging reservation for OBCs in unaided private educational institutions.
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