By IANS,
Kolkata: Exuding confidence that the problems with the Nationalist Congress Party would be resolved soon, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar Saturday said such differences of opinion were bound to occur in a coalition government.
“I am sure it will,” Aiyar told media persons on the sidelines of a programme here in response to queries whether the problem with NCP chief Sharad Pawar would be resolved soon.
“We are a coalition because we are not one part. It is inevitable that parties who belong to the coalition will have differences of nuances and differences of opinion,” he said.
Aiyar said coalition dharma demands that when such issues crop up, a technical reconciliation has to be found out.
“The UPA government has been doing the reconciliation again and again and again. It will continue to do for the next two years. And then the people will vote the coalition back, and the government will be formed by the Congress again,” he said.
The Congress Friday reached out to the NCP after it expressed unhappiness about some aspects of the coalition’s working but the strain in their ties continued with the ally deciding to meet Monday to take a final decision on the issues it has raised.
According to NCP sources, Pawar is unhappy over not been accorded the number two slot in the cabinet, after Pranab Mukherjee’s exit from the cabinet.
They said he was also upset over reports that union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, his one-time protege, may be the new Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha.
On West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s threat that she would lead an MP/legislators’ delegation to the prime minister to press for her demand for a three-year moratorium on interest payment on central loans, he said: “I do imagine whatever she has to say will be listened to with the greatest of interest by prime minister, who is also the head of the coalition.”