NEW DELHI , Jul 11 (Reuters): India's government will announce the date for a confidence vote Friday as it fights for survival after its communist allies withdrew their support to protest against a US nuclear deal.
The vote is expected to take place on either July 21 or July 22, a spokesman at the prime minister's office said, but a final decision will come after a cabinet meeting later Friday.
A regional party has stepped in to replace the communists who opposed the deal as harmful for India, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government still needs the support of smaller parties and independent lawmakers to survive the confidence vote.
The government will fall if it loses the vote, triggering early elections and damaging chances of the deal going through.
Trying to cobble a parliamentary majority, government allies were closeted in meetings on Friday with potential supporting parties, many of who are keen to avoid polls at a time when inflation is at a record high.
"We are meeting our potential allies," said a spokesman for the Congress party, which heads the ruling coalition.
"Then our party leadership will decide on the date and communicate it to the president."
The government's worries have been compounded by vacillation among some of its long-standing partners, worried supporting a pact with the United States may alienate voters ahead of national elections next year.
The balance of power is held by the regional Samajwadi Party which said its 39 lawmakers will back the government as it tries to cross the majority mark of 272. Even then, the government still needs around seven votes from smaller parties.
"I think the government will survive the confidence vote, perhaps with around a 10-vote margin," said political commentator Kuldip Nayar.
India's main stock exchange fell last week in part due to the political uncertainty, and has largely see-sawed as much on the news of the exit of the communists as global economic factors.
The nuclear deal, which will help open up the international nuclear trade to India, will unlock an energy market worth some billions of dollars for major European and American nuclear firms.
Communist parties say the deal makes India subservient to Washington, a one-time Cold War rival.
But before that India and the United States must win clearances from UN atomic watchdog governors and a 45-nation group that controls sensitive nuclear trade, then ratification by the US Congress for the deal, agreed in 2005, to take force.
India took the first step toward implementing it Wednesday by submitting a draft plan for inspections of its civilian nuclear reactors to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) 35-nation Board of Governors in Vienna.
The move has invited criticism from the former communist allies and the main Hindu nationalist opposition which say a minority government did not have the moral authority to move on an international agreement.
The IAEA announcement that India had submitted the nuclear accord came despite Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying Tuesday that India would seek approval from the nuclear watchdog only after the vote of confidence.
