The Hindu : Front Page : CWC to discuss U.P. situation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 19, 2007
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CWC to discuss U.P. situation

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee will meet on Monday evening to take stock of the political situation in the country on the eve of the budget session of Parliament beginning later in the week. Among other issues, the latest developments in Uttar Pradesh would also be discussed, according to All-India Congress Committee sources.

The sources were keen to make the point that the CWC would not be UP-centric. Rather the idea was to enable the party leaders to review the recent developments, including the rampant price rise.

The CWC would be an occasion for the party leaders to have their say as to how the budget should address pressing — and politically costly — economic issues, according to these sources. There has been widespread unhappiness in the Congress rank and file over the Manmohan Singh Government's inability to control inflation or otherwise provide any kind of relief to the "aam admi.'' Even the recent reduction in petroleum and diesel prices is being attributed to a decisive intervention by party president Sonia Gandhi.

The differences between the government and the party on economic issues came out in the open recently when the Congress president's letter to the Prime Minister on Foreign Direct Investment in retail trade was leaked to the media. Party leaders and activists have taken to speaking in exasperated terms about Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.

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