Cong cold to NCP demand to change panel composition

The Congress party is not in favour of any change in the composition of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee as demanded by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in its political resolution at Dehradun last Saturday, even as the Left parties distanced themselves from this debate leaving it to the UPA and the Congress to take a call on this issue.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi argued that the parties constituting the UPA are represented in the Cabinet and have a forum to exchange their views on government's policies. Besides, they are also part of the UPA coordination committee consisting of the constituents of the alliance only.

The Left parties, on the other hand, are not a part of the government and, therefore, it is necessary to have some mechanism to represent their views.

"Forums and mechanism for consultations are adequately available to each of the UPA constituents... Nevertheless, if there is a proposal from some party (to expand the UPA-Left coordination committee), we will consider it," said Singhvi at a press briefing today.

Senior CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu said that the Left parties had no objection to any change in the composition of this committee. "But, it is up to the Congress and the UPA to decide. Our only problem is the way the UPA regime takes unilateral decisions on many issues despite protests by the Left," he said.

The NCP had in its political resolution questioned the logic of having a Congress-Left Coordination Committee. Union Agriculture Minister and NCP President Sharad Pawar had said that presence of ministers from among the allies at UPA-Left coordination committee meetings would help in immediate clarification of doubts raised by the Left parties and would also speed up decision making.

Congress sources, however, brushed off these suggestions saying that inclusion of UPA constituents in this committee will only add to confusion and delay in decision-making as each of them will have some views on everything.