New Delhi, Sept. 4: The Congress and the Left have equal representation in the panel on the nuclear deal but other allies are expected to tilt the balance in the event of a tie.

The 15-member panel was announced late tonight, capping speculation of differences over its size and composition on a day the Left hit the streets across the country to protest India’s growing ties with America.

Prakash Karat, a member of the panel, warned the government against going ahead with negotiations at the International Atomic Energy Agency till the committee completes its work.

The committee, which has been mandated to examine the implications of the Hyde Act and the larger ramifications of the Indo-US nuclear deal on India’s foreign policy, will have foreign Pranab Mukherjee as its convener.

The panel will have six members each from the Congress and the Left, although the coalition leader initially wanted to have more berths. The final break-up is seen as a concession to the Left.

However, the other three members from the UPA’s partners — the RJD, DMK and the NCP — are expected to pull their weight behind the Congress when the panel tackles tricky areas.

The allies, especially the RJD, supported the Congress on the deal. None of them has so far bought the Left’s line that the deal will lock India in a strategic partnership with the US.

The Congress has made sure to pick nominees — five cabinet ministers and one minister of state but in the PMO — who know their way around complex documents and can be counted upon to draft statements that will have escape routes for the government.

Mukherjee was the nodal point of the crisis management when the nuclear storm broke. Defence minister A.K. Antony was also part of the core team.

Ahmed Patel, the third fire-fighter and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary, is not in the team, indicating that the Congress president did not wish to involve the party in an issue that could decide the fate of the UPA government.

Science minister Kapil Sibal was fielded by the Prime Minister to publicly defend the deal. Finance minister P. Chidambaram enjoys the Prime Minister’s confidence.

Minister of state Prithiviraj Chavan, who passed out of Berkeley University, was mandated by the Prime Minister to answer parliamentary questions on atomic energy and science.

Chavan was already at work to find out whether India’s atomic energy law should be amended to address concerns expressed by sceptics of the nuclear deal.

Saifuddin Soz is expected to be the “minority” face of the project to try and counter insinuations from the Left and the Samajwadi Party that the deal is “anti-Muslim” because of the personal involvement of President George W. Bush in removing hurdles in America.

Initially, it was assumed that Sharad Pawar wanted to nominate P.A. Sangma but the Congress reportedly disfavoured his name, given the perception that he was not on the best of terms with the high command.

However, sources in the Congress said the committee was likely to accomplish little other than buying time for elections.