Solution to NCP-Cong standoff in offing?

Jul 25, 2012 |

New Delhi

Tags:

A solution to the Congress-NCP standoff appears to be in sight with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reaching out to NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday amid indications that a UPA Coordination Committee could be set up.

Signs of a thaw emerged with NCP leader Praful Patel disputing reports that his party had served an ultimatum to the Congress. He also called up Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for the first time since the crisis began last Thursday.

Sources said Prime Minister is expected to meet Pawar and Patel shortly to address the issues raised by NCP, including the need for a Coordination Committee for the UPA.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is also expected to be part of the meeting.
The swearing-in ceremony of Pranab Mukherjee as the new President saw Congress sending clear signal that Defence Minister A.K. Antony was the 'No 2' in the government as he was seated next to the Prime Minister followed by Pawar.

Congress sources said that Patel suggested to Chavan that the standoff was not targeted at him and was for a resolution of certain grievances at the Centre.

Asked about the possibility of forming a Coordination Committee for better functioning of the government, Singh said "we are ready to discuss with NCP on issues. In politics, there is give and take."

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/174668" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-36d60eeca3c99f7386ba94fa69c60b47" value="form-36d60eeca3c99f7386ba94fa69c60b47" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86280468" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>