The battle for the survival of the UPA government and the Indo-US nuclear deal was fought inside the parliament, but its nerve centre was Maharashtra. The Congress-NCP combine in the state pooled in all its resources to ensure a smooth sailing for Dr Manmohan Singh’s government at the Centre. In the end, it was the political arithmetic that overshadowed the 1,2,3 of nuclear technology. The UPA government not only won the trust vote but is also going ahead with the deal.

However, the big question now confronting mainstream parties — the Congress, the NCP, the Shiv Sena and the BJP — is the extent to which the trust vote is likely to alter the political permutation and combination in Maharashtra. And there is a lot at stake with the state all set to face the elections next year. There are 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 assembly constituencies.

Seventy-two hours after the trust vote, these parties in the state are all set to take their fight to the streets. While the ruling Congress-NCP combine is busy preaching nuclear science to aam admi, the BJP and the Shiv Sena are gearing up to neutralise the effect by exposing corruption in the corridors of power.

The Congress-NCP combine is directing all its energy to encash the UPA’s trust vote victory. Not the one to waste time, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has already given a clarion call to the party leaders and workers to use the success to their advantage. The Congress leaders are working overtime harping about the advantages of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel says, “It is a big leap forward in energy revolution.”