NCP to press Cong for share in posts

The UPA Coordination Committee will meet in the Capital on November 26 amidst pressure from the NCP on the need for monthly meetings. The NC...

The UPA Coordination Committee will meet in the Capital on November 26 amidst pressure from the NCP on the need for monthly meetings. The NCP’s objective at the meeting will be to force the Congress to share key posts such as gubernatorial posts, with UPA partners.

The stated objective of the meeting is strategy formulation for the Winter session of Parliament beginning December 1. The UPA Coordination Committee has not met for several months now and the Congress has been having a free run as far as key posts are concerned.

NCP general secretary D.P. Tripathi did not mince words when he said, ‘‘This Government is not anybody’s fiefdom’’. ‘‘I am using my words carefully,’’ he stressed. He said: ‘‘I want to tell my friends in the Congress that this is not a single-party government. They should understand that they are only 145 in the Lok Sabha.’’

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Sources said the NCP was upset because the Congress—the dominant coalition partner—had chosen from its own ranks while filling up a dozen-odd gubernatorial vacancies.

Tripathi said the NCP was in talks with other UPA partners, to enlist their support for the post-sharing demand. A senior Congress leaders said, ‘‘We cannot join the issue with our allies on a day-to-day basis. We would respond if Sharad Pawar (NCP chief) speaks up.’’