Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Amid signals from Nationalist Congress Party that a solution could be found to its current impasse with the Congress, its leaders are expected to meet here Wednesday to take a final decision about their continuation in the UPA government.

“I think a solution would be found. Coordination committee could be set up,” a NCP leader told IANS.

Setting up a coordination committee of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) parties has been a long-standing demand of NCP.

The NCP had said Monday deferred a decision to pull out of government, saying that it will take a final decision after more consultations with its leaders from Maharashtra.

The NCP ministers had last week conveyed their unhappiness with “some aspects of working” of the coalition government to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The NCP’s grouse is that it was “not consulted” on key policy decisions at the central and state level in Maharashtra, where the two parties are in a coalition, and there is a lack of coordination with the Congress.

The Congress has sought to downplay the rift and maintained that a solution will be found through talks.

The rift between the two parties broke out after the presidential poll last week with Agriculture Minister and party chief Pawar sending a communication to the prime minister conveying the party’s unhappiness. The NCP had threatened to pull out of government and provide it only outside support.

Sources said Pawar told the prime minister and Congress president, whom he met in quick succession Thursday night and Friday morning, that the NCP would like to keep out of the government and focus on its growth for the 2014 general elections.

Though the Congress leadership has sought to mollify Pawar, the NCP leader has so far remained unswayed.

NCP, sources said, wants it to consulted in key political appointments and the ruling coalition not to be run “as a single-party government”.