NCP sets Wednesday deadline

The rift between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) escalated on Tuesday with the latter asserting that if its demands relating to the functioning of government are not resolved by Wednesday, then the party will announce its final decision, including pulling out from the UPA government.

A senior NCP leader said the Congress leadership has to take a decision on its demands before the next Cabinet meeting on Thursday, “because it would not be good for a leader of Pawar’s stature to be absent from two consecutive meetings.”

Pawar had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week expressing his desire to quit the government and support it from outside in protest against the way the party was treated by the Congress.

The NCP leader, who did not want to be named, alleged that the Congress takes unilateral decisions. The leader stressed that NCP’s grudge was more related to issues in Maharashtra and said there has not been a single meeting of the Congress-NCP coordination committee since Prithviraj Chavan became the chief minister.