The NCP Working Committee met here to discuss its options in the wake of party chief Sharad Pawar's communication to the Congress leadership last week expressing a desire to quit the government along with another minister Praful Patel on issues like better functioning of the coalition.
At the end of the hour-long deliberations, Patel said the discussions in the party would continue on issues like continuing in the government and a final decision would be taken "no later than" Wednesday.
He said the party has decided to further consult leaders in Maharashtra, where NCP is a major partner in the Congress-led coalition government, and have issues over the functioning of the government there. The state NCP leaders could not be in Delhi due to the ongoing session of the Assembly.
"As far as the UPA is concerned, we have made it clear we are part of the UPA and will continue to support the government and the UPA till the very end," Patel said to a volley of questions on whether the party still continued to be part of the government.
On Thursday after polling in the President's election, Pawar sent a missive to the Prime Minister wanting to quit the government. The party said it had a number of issues over the way the UPA government functioned and denied that No 2 status for Pawar in the Cabinet was behind the current standoff. (More)