By AINS,
New Delhi: Leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) held a meeting here Tuesday, where they were briefed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee about the deadlock in the drafting of the anti-graft Lokpal bill.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other leaders.
Though DMK chief and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi was in town, he did not attend the meet and former union minister T.R. Baalu represented the party.
Union Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah told reporters that Mukherjee briefed the meeting about the two different drafts – one by the government and the other by the civil society representatives.
Mukherjee will discuss the two drafts with various political parties, he added.
The UPA leaders’ meet, held against the backdrop of the continuing differences over the Lokpal bill and raging corruption scandals, is viewed as a step by the UPA to put its house in order and to prepare for the monsoon session of parliament beginning Aug 1.
Earlier, a meeting of the 10-member joint drafting committee of the Lokpal bill ended without consensus with the government and the civil society presenting divergent drafts. Both the drafts will be sent to the union cabinet by June 30.