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NCP's national convention tomorrow

More than 1000 delegates from all over the country are likely to attend the first national convention of the Nationalist Congress Party floated by the expelled Congress leader Sharad Pawar tomorrow.

The day-long convention at the Shanmukhananda Hall at Sion in north-central Bombay will be followed by a rally at the historic Shivaji Park at Dadar later in the evening.

Apart from adopting the party constitution, political and economic resolutions, and according approval to various ad-hoc committees, the party's working committee will also be constituted tomorrow.

The working committee will hold its first meeting at New Delhi on June 14 to chalk out political and electoral strategies.

The NCP president, Sharad Pawar, said his party's ideology will be similar to that of the Congress. ''It will have the vision of Gandhiji and Pandit Nehru and will encompass Indira Gandhi's social justice programme and Rajiv Gandhi's vision of the twenty-first century.'' He also made it clear that the NCP will be equidistant from the Congress, and the BJP.

In Maharashtra, Pawar has succeeded in vertically splitting the Congress. As many as 60 legislators from the 103-member Congress Legislature Party have joined the NCP, giving a severe jolt to the Congress.

The split could not be averted despite a damage-control mission undertaken by the AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra, Madhavrao Scindia, AICC general Secretary, Ghulam Nabi Azad and repeated efforts by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president, Prataprao Bhosale.

UNI

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