UPA coordination committee meet on September 27

A meeting of the United Progressive Alliance coordination committee is being held on Thursday against the backdrop of the political crisis in Maharashtra that has seen cracks widen in the ruling Congress-NCP coalition in the state.

The committee was constituted last month to ensure cohesive functioning of UPA after Congress ally Nationalist Congress Party had raised the issue of lack of coordination in the ruling alliance.

This is the first meeting of the committee headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi after Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress pulled out of UPA this month.

TMC, the second largest constituent of the UPA with 19 MPs, withdrew support to the government protesting its decisions on FDI in multi-brand retail, diesel price hike and cap on subsidized domestic LPG cylinders.

Asked if the party would raise the issue of resignation of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar at the coordination committee meeting, Union Minister and NCP Vice President Praful Patel replied in the negative.

The meeting also comes at a time when the government is facing an Opposition attack on its new economic reform measures.

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Tuesday endorsed the government's initiatives with Sonia Gandhi saying the steps were "very necessary" to bring the economy back on the rails.

Another UPA constituent DMK also organized a bandh against the government measures on September 20, when the Opposition organised a nation-wide agitation on these issues.

The meet is expected to make an attempt to formulate a coherent response of the ruling alliance to the challenging economic issues.