The CPI’s D Raja and CPM general secretary Prakash Karat with Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi and his daughter, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, in Chennai. (PTI)

June 22: M. Karunanidhi is expected to call Sonia Gandhi tonight and tell her that a break-up with the Left over the nuclear deal would end up helping the “communal forces”.

The chief minister agreed to mediate with the Congress after Left leaders Prakash Karat and D. Raja met him in Chennai today with a request to intervene and “save the situation”, DMK sources said.

The DMK expects the secularism line to strike a chord with Sonia and present the Congress with a second argument to go slow on the nuclear deal after the Prime Minister was gently nudged yesterday to give priority to combating inflation.

Karunanidhi will remind Sonia and Manmohan Singh that the UPA was formed mainly to fight communalism.

“The Prime Minister keeps talking of a nine and 10 per cent growth rate, but if the communal forces are in power they will shatter the country’s peace and take the growth rate back to zero,” a DMK leader said.

Congress sources said the party did not want to be seen letting the Prime Minister down, but it could not lose sight of the “larger goal” for which the UPA came into being.

“The Prime Minister is the UPA’s Prime Minister and not just the Congress’s. We have to take our allies along in whatever we decide,” a Congress leader said.

Left and DMK sources said Karunanidhi would visit Delhi “if needed”, perhaps on Tuesday. The UPA-Left committee is to meet on Wednesday — the deadline set by CPM general secretary Karat for the government to change its mind or face a “break” with the Left.

Karat and CPI national secretary Raja had arrived in Chennai grim-faced but looked relaxed after the one-hour meeting with the chief minister. Union shipping minister T.R. Baalu of the DMK and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi — Karunanidhi’s daughter —were present during the talks.

The Left has kept channels of communication open with the UPA partners and other parties, including the Samajwadi Party, sources said. Karat has already spoken to Samajwadi leader Ram Gopal Yadav.

“The process of reaching out to other parties to explain our position is on. And the Samajwadis have been taking part in joint struggles with us,” a Left leader said.

Death threat

Karat and three other top Left leaders have received death threats by mail for blocking the nuclear deal and “harassing” the government, PTI reported.

The sender mailed one copy of the letter to the Prime Minister’s Office and four to Karat, fellow CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury, and CPI leaders A.B. Bardhan and Raja. The letter, which gives the sender’s name as Vinay Kateri of Mumbai, accuses the Left leaders of “hijacking” the national interest and warns them against “behaving like terrorists”.