New Delhi, July 19: The UPA government will seek to build a consensus with its new non-Left allies to push through its unfinished economic reforms agenda if it succeeds in winning the trust vote in the Lok Sabha on July 22, highly placed government sources indicated here today.

Reforms in the insurance and banking sectors, coupled with sweeping pension reforms which seek to invest government and non-government employees’ pensions in the market, were blocked over the last four years by the Left parties.

With the government no longer dependent on Left support, it is keen to start discussions with its new allies — notably the Samajwadi Party — to build a consensus in favour of these reforms.

Without such consensus, the government will not be able to pass the necessary legislation to implement these reforms, the sources said. But since the government’s new allies are not as ideologically opposed to second-generation reforms as the Left parties, the passage this time round may be smoother, it is felt.

Apart from economic reforms, the government is also willing to address the question of amending the Atomic Energy Act to bring about some kind of domestic equivalent to the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress, sources said.

The demand for an Indian “Hyde Act” has been made from time to time by the leader of the Opposition, Lal Krishna Advani. The government is willing “to look at all options, provided they are feasible”, the sources said, adding that Advani has not spelt out what exactly the amendments should be in any great detail.

While the political managers of the UPA are desperately scrambling for numbers to win what is becoming an increasingly bitter and close contest on Tuesday, the government itself is confident of winning the trust vote and has begun to look ahead, the sources indicated.

Tuesday’s confidence vote may have been brought about because of the government’s decision to defy the Left’s opposition and go ahead with the nuclear deal but the UPA will not confine the debate to the deal, the sources said.

The government will use the trust vote debate to underline that it is not a “one-issue government” but has a whole range of achievements to its credit.

The government’s flagship aam aadmi programmes — particularly the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act which is being dubbed “the world’s largest social welfare programme” — and the strides taken in the field of education (“the greatest single expansion of IITs and IIMs since Independence”) will be highlighted in a big way during the debate.

On the nuclear deal, speakers fielded from the treasury benches will take the cue from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who have already hailed it as a step taken in “supreme national interest.”

The main effort will be to showcase the deal in the context of India’s growing need for electricity and energy security. Unlike what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the G8 summit earlier this month, care will be taken not to focus on the “genuine strategic partnership” that has developed between India and the US under the UPA regime.

Although no one in the government or the UPA is willing to concede the possibility of losing the trust vote, sources indicated that in case of a defeat the government would use the parliamentary debate to launch its election campaign. The government’s achievements in the social and education sector, its ability to manage a coalition well for four years (the Left wasn’t part of the coalition but only supported it from outside), its management of the economy, and its ability to get the entire world to end “nuclear apartheid” against India will all form part of the UPA’s campaign.

As for the fate of the deal, official sources refused to spell out whether the government would abort the negotiations with the IAEA board of governors — slated to formally take up the India-specific safeguards agreement on August 1 — in case it lost the trust vote. Such concerns were dismissed as “hypothetical”, leaving it unclear whether the government would go ahead with the deal even if it were reduced to a caretaker status on Tuesday.