What happened before the key N-deal meet?

The United Progressive Alliance-Left parties may have averted a showdown at the key meeting on Wednesday, but the hours preceding the meet were dramatic, and full of suspense. 

 

The drama began unfolding right from the morning after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee -- back from Australia -- took command of the situation.

 

Here is a look at what happened during that crucial hours that Left the government's fate on tenterhooks.

0800 hrs:   Defence Minister A K Antony briefs Mukherjee on the nuclear front during his absence.

0815: Mukherjee invites CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat for a Bengali breakfast at his Talkatora Road residence. Antony was also present.

1000:  Mukherjee and Antony drive down to 10 Janpath to meet Sonia Gandhi.

1030:  Karat drives to the South Avenue residence of Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav to meet his brother and SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

1030: CPI leader A B Bardhan receives a call from Mukherjee to brief him on his discussions with Karat and Sonia.

1100:  Sonia

asks Mukherjee to rush to South Block, to brief the prime minister.

1130:  Bardhan says life of the government is till 5 pm (when the coordination committee) meets. Then, he gets a call from Sonia to tone down the anger.

1145: Mukherjee meets Singh to convey a special message from Sonia and brief him on the Left's stand and a compromise formula suggested to them to end the impasse.

1200:  Immediately after the PM-Pranab meeting, the Special Protection Group (SPG) director is told to keep the route ready for PM for a tentative visit to meet Sonia at 1500.

1230:  Pranab Mukherjee asks Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Law Secretary TK Viswanathan to rush to him in the South Block with the draft IAEA agreement that the Left insisted to examine.

1300: Sonia's political secretary Ahmed Patel meets Union ministers Kapil Sibal and A K Antony.

1600: Karat convenes a meeting of all Left parties leaders at the AK Gopalan Bhavan, the CPI(M) headquarters, to finalise the strategy at the coordination committee meeting.

1700: The meeting begins at at Pranab Mukherjee's Talkatora Road residence.