NEW DELHI: The Congress hopes to initiate talks with the Left parties later this week after its president Sonia Gandhi returns here from her holiday in Himachal Pradesh.

On receiving their communication that they would suspend participation in coordination committee meetings with the United Progressive Alliance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat. He told Mr. Karat that both Ms. Gandhi and some of his senior colleagues were away from Delhi and that the party would discuss the issue on their return.

The Congress said Ms. Gandhi, UPA chairperson, was likely to meet the core group and address the concerns on disinvestment raised by the Left on Sunday.

The Left stand prompted the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a UPA constituent, to ask the Prime Minister and Ms. Gandhi to "strictly adhere to" the National Common Minimum Programme.

In identical fax messages to Dr. Singh and Ms. Gandhi, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi said the UPA Government need not have any misunderstanding with the Left parties. "As we have all accepted earlier, I request you to strictly adhere to the National Common Minimum Programme."

The Congress took the DMK advice in its stride. "[There can be] no two opinions on this count. Who wants to digress from the CMP?," All-India Congress Committee general secretary Ambika Soni told correspondents here on Monday. No problem would be so big that it undermined the basic UPA objective of strengthening secular politics and fighting communal forces. On the possibility of a review or rethink of the decision to offload equity in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Ms. Soni said it was for the Government to decide.

Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said there was no breach of the CMP. Dr. Singh had stated BHEL would remain in the public sector and that disinvestment did not mean privatisation.

The CPI(M-L) suggested that the Left parties quit the coordination committee as "right from the start [it] was intended to hoodwink the people by securing a Left seal of approval for the economic policies of liberalisation and other anti-people measures of the UPA Government ... every meeting of this committee has been followed by a fresh announcement of anti-people measures," said general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya.

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