With both the UPA and the Left holding on to their respective positions on the Indo-US nuke deal and the deadlock continuing, the Samajwadi Party appears to be heading for the centre stage and would in all probability hold the key to the survival of the UPA government.

Things moved rapidly on Tuesday as Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh met CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat to discuss the emerging political scenario in the wake of Left’s adamant stand on the nuke deal.

The SP's 39 Members of Parliament can play a crucial role in saving the government in the Lok Sabha in case the Left executes its threat.

The meeting gains significance as it comes just a day after Amar Singh met UPA’s chief trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee. Although, he tried to clarify that his meeting with mukherjee was strictly on a personal level adding that he has not met any Congress leader officially or unofficially on the nuclear deal issue so far, but his agreeing to meet to meet National Security Advisor M K Narayanan tomorrow to understand the deal better are sure to raise eyebrows over what transpired between the two.

Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Prasad has also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath.

The Left on the other hand have decided to meet on July 4 to decide on their future course of action. The timing of the meet assumes significance as it comes just a day after the scheduled conclave of the UNPA – who hold the key in the eventuality of the Left pulling the rug from under Manmohan Singh’s feet.

Going by the way thing are developing it seems that July 4 would be the D-day with regards to the Left’s support to the UPA, given their unwavering opposition to the proposed deal.

Senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury gave an indication of the Left’s stand when he said, “The Left Front would withdraw support to the UPA the moment it went to IAEA. Our decision is final.”

However, by timing their meet just after the UNPA takes a stand on the issue, the Left appears to be playing the wait-and-watch game. Incidentally, the Left has time-and-again made it clear that it does not favour the SP allying with the UPA.

Earlier, in a last-ditch attempt to placate UPA’s Left partners, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on Monday said that his government would come to Parliament, after negotiating with the IAEA and NSG on the Indo-US nuclear deal..

The PM even tried to play down the Left’s renewed threat to withdraw its support, saying there was “nothing new” in the Left’s stated position. He also expressed hope that the government would be able to work out an arrangement taking into account all concerns.

Dr Singh further stated that he wants authority to go through all stages of negotiations on the Indo-US nuclear deal, making it clear that the government will come to Parliament before operationalising the deal.

But PM’s remarks failed to move the Left parties, who said that there was "nothing new" in Singh's statement. The PM was trying to present a "fait accompli" before the Parliament by pleading for permission to complete negotiations with IAEA and NSG, they added.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India on Tuesday said it would review the interest rates on home loans in the next 10 days. "We are still examining the market condition and will take a view on home loan rates in another week or 10 days," SBI Chairman O P Bhatt told reporters in New Delhi.

The SBI had increased its PLR by 50 basis points to 12.75 per cent last week. Following the hike in lending rates, the bank also increased deposits rates for various maturities. The bank expects net interest margin in the range of three per cent as compared to 3.09 per cent in the previous year.

Bhatt said credit growth this year would moderate by 2-3 per cent and aims advances to grow at 20-21 per cent. Speaking about profitability, he said less business would mean less profitability. Impact on volume would have some impact on profitability.

The Jammu and Kashmir cabinet has revoked the order to transfer land to the Amarnath shrine board which has lead to much protests in the state from anti and for quarters of the deal. Section 144 was imposed in Jammu to prevent situation getting out of hand.

A meeting of the cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had a discussion on the order to hand over 39.88 hectares of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and a decision taken on it, official sources said here.

The land has been transferred to the Tourism Department.

The state government had already written to Governor N N Vohra, who is also the Chairman of SASB, that it was in a better position to provide facilities to the pilgrims on a larger scale following which the shrine board gave up the claim on the land - an issue which had led to a series of protests in the valley.

This was the first time that the cabinet met formally without PDP ministers, who resigned during the weekend to protest over the proposed land transfer to the shrine board - a move which surprised the Congress as the proposal was mooted by two ministers before the state cabinet and both of them belonged to the PDP.

Meanwhile, the situation in Srinagar continued to be tense but under control with police and paramilitary forces patrolling the streets following a call given by separatist leaders for a rally at the downtown Jama Masjid on Tuesday.

As a preventive measure, police has restricted the movement of some of separatist leaders including Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Shabbir Shah.

Police had to fire in the air near Baltal in Sonamarg when some people tried to block Army vehicles en-route to Leh.

Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs for the second day running on Tuesday. And, as expected water logging has started in many of the low lying areas of the western metropolis.

Several trains – local and long distance - were cancelled following the flooding of tracks in many areas. The worst effected was Central line as it had to be shutdown for sometime during the morning rush hour. However the Harbour line and the Western line are open but trains are running late by at least 15 minutes.

Traffic snarls were also reported across various junctions in the city with several low lying areas inundated by water, police said.

Flights from the international airports were delayed by an hour and a half, according to the Mumbai International Airport Website.

As per officials, the situation might worsen after 11 am when the high tide starts, thereby hampering the natural outflow of water. The areas that are facing the brunt are Bandra, Parel and other areas in south Mumbai.

Moreover, water logging up to one and a half feet was reported in Bandra, Sion, Chembur, Ghatkopar, Andheri and several low lying areas. Besides, landslides in the Mumbai-Pune expressway disrupted the vehicular traffic.

According to the Regional Meteorological Department, Colaba in South Mumbai recorded a heavy rainfall of 200 mm while Santacruz (suburbs) recorded 142.9 mm.

"We have been experiencing light rainfall over the last few weeks. However, the intensity of rainfall will increase only if the necessary conditions are in place to allow it," Dr C V V Bhadram, deputy director general of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Mumbai said.

"Presently, the conditions are favourable and it is expected that the spell of heavy rainfall could last for two to three days along Mumbai and the Konkan coast," Bhadram said.

The rains came as a relief to city residents who, after a brief spell of heavy rainfall in the first week of June after the arrival of the monsoons, have had to deal with a spell of cloudy humid weather.

This is the second spell that the city has received this season.

Last year too, the city and its suburbs got paralysed due to incessant rains.