Senator Joseph R Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, set the ball rolling. He said helping India to meet its growing energy needs would be in the interest of the United States.
US Representative Tom Lantos joined him. Lantos, a ranking Democrat on the US House of Representatives' International Relations Committee, had earlier raised doubts about India's close ties with Iran and said that it could hurt the nuclear deal.
Shyam Saran stepped in and cleared the air. After that, Lantos said India and the United States need each other in the war against terrorism, and that the two countries must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
He then set out, along with Biden, to author a legislation that would enable the US to supply nuclear technology to India.
One they set out on that journey, the two had to give an inch here and a few there, but they kept their focus on the legislation and ensured that the bill reached the House of Representatives and the Senate without any 'deal breaking' compromises.
Some other influential lawmakers also threw their weight behind the nuclear deal.
Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde, who termed the deal as a crowning glory in Indo-US ties, fine-tuned the language of the bill and ensured that there was very little difference between the version that was submitted to the committee and the one that passed through.
Another major supporter who put his hand up in favour of the deal the moment it was announced was Congressman Gary Ackerman.
Ackerman -- co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans and senior member of the House International Relations Committee -- was a tireless advocate for the early passage of the deal in the US Congress.
Another key lawmaker was Senator John Cornyn. A strong believer that the deal would bring India into the non-proliferation mainstream, Cornyn, who heads a shortlist of lawmakers whom Bush can count on for anything, any time, ensured that the final bill in the Senate passed without any glitches.
Likewise, Congressman Joe Crowley was among the first to identify that the opposition to Bush's historic policy decision was at home and ironed all differences out with the deal's critics.
During the final stages of the passage in the US Congress, when everyone was talking about 'deal breakers', it was the clout of these unsung men, who are virtually unknown in India, which pushed the deal past the final hurdle.
Image: President Bush answers questions about the deal from the media as US Representative Henry Hyde, Senators Richard Lugar, Joseph Biden and John Warner watch. Inset: Gary Ackerman, Henry Hyde, John Cornyn and Joe Crowley all pushed for the deal.
Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Also read: Why Bush has to deliver in India
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