By IANS,
New Delhi: A meeting of leaders of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was held here Monday evening ahead of the monsoon session of parliament that begins July 26, but Nationalist Congress Party leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was not present.
Another crucial ally absent was Trinamool Congress party chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was away in West Bengal due to the train tragedy.
The meeting of the coordination committee of the UPA, held at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, lasted nearly 90 minutes. It was attended by UPA constituents including T.R. Baalu from DMK, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah from National Conference, Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed from Muslim League Kerala State Committee, Asaduddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Pawar was “away due to personal reasons”.
On July 9, the NCP had complained that the Congress was not giving it any “space” and it would form alliances at the state level, including with the Left parties.
After the UPA constituents meeting, the government said it was prepared to discuss any matter of interest to members in the parliament session and hoped that the sittings of the two houses would go off smoothly.
Briefing reporters after a meeting, Chidambaram said that issues relating to the monsoon session, particularly the bills, were discussed.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is chairperson of UPA, and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee were present at the meeting.
Chidambaram said some bills have been passed by one of the houses of parliament while others were to be introduced and passed. He said that two ordinances have to be replaced with bills.
The minister said the meeting also identified issues that political parties would like to raise in the parliament.
Chidambaram said that Mukherjee, who is also the leader of the house in Lok Sabha, met leaders of opposition parties Monday and conveyed the government’s intention to discuss any matter of interest to members.
“We are prepared to discuss any matter as per rules. We hope that the session will go off smoothly,” he said.
He hoped that a lot business will be transacted in the session.
Asked if women’s reservation bill was discussed at the meeting, the minister said he was not going into specifics.
The government is scheduled to hold another round of discussion with political parties on the women’s reservation bill which has been passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP)and a section of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) are opposed to the bill in its present form.
The opposition has signaled its intention to exert pressure on the government on the issue of price rise in the session.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left organised a countrywide shutdown July 5 against price rise and hike in prices of petroleum products.
Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav later said that efforts will continue for larger opposition unity on the issue of price rise.
The opposition is also likely to raise the issues of Bhopal gas verdict, talks with Pakistan, Maoist violence and the recent train accidents, including Monday’s tragedy in Birbhum district in West Bengal which claimed at least 60 lives.
The SP, RJD and the JD-U are likely to raise the issue of caste-based census during the session.