Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil greet Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Crown Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Maxima in New Delhi. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, Oct. 24: The Congress is hoping that Parliament’s winter session would give it the opportunity to pitch for the nuclear deal as “diplomatically” as possible — that is, without underlining the divisions with the Left.

The party’s task is cut out as its allies made it clear at Monday’s meeting with the Prime Minister that they didn’t want to snap ties with the Left and force early elections.

Sources said a public articulation on the deal would have to factor in the “sentiments” of the allies because the last thing the Congress wants is to “expose” its “isolation” in Parliament.

Government sources claimed they were “more than keen” on a debate during the next session, likely to start on November 12 and end on November 30. But much would depend on whether the BJP would allow it to take place as well as the outcome of the next UPA-Left nuclear panel meeting on November 16.

Parliamentary affairs minister P.R. Das Munshi, however, stressed that the debate will take place but it need not be under a rule that entails voting because the Lok Sabha Speaker had ruled against one in a previous session.

A panel member’s “informed” guess was that one of the areas the debate could throw light on was that the deal with the US was not dependent on certain leaders. “The issue is not of completing it within George W. Bush’s presidency,” the member said.

The debate, the member added, could also elucidate the point that negotiations with nuclear watchdog IAEA didn’t have an air of finality until the agreement was inked, and so couldn’t be strictly treated as “decisive moves towards operationalisation”.

The Congress appears keen to emphasise the point that it is an “Indo-world” deal and not just an Indo-US one because it opens technical doors to as many as 45 countries. Sources said the government would also try and explain that it does not involve a “strategic embrace” with the US.

The Congress rejected with “contempt” the BJP’s “vitriolic and highly unjustified” attack on Singh. Spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan accused the BJP, which yesterday wondered whether a “sad and helpless Prime Minister” could lead India, of trying to “achieve by underhand means what they have failed to achieve directly”.

Natrajan said the Congress and the UPA stood “like a rock” behind Singh and described him as “successful, dynamic and respected”.

PMO sources said Singh was “firm” rather than “anguished” at Monday’s meeting and had stressed that the deal was a “collective decision” of the ruling coalition.