Chidambaram briefs CWC on Kashmir, Ayodhya verdict

NEW DELHI: Home Minister P Chidambaram today briefed the Congress Working Committee on the situation arising out of the Ayodhya verdict and the situation in Kashmir Valley.

Chidambaram talked at length about the atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir after the recent initiative of the Centre to bring normalcy in the troubled state.

The CWC meeting was attended among others by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Sources said Gandhi and Singh did not speak on either of the issues in the meeting.

They said that most of the Congress leaders, who participated in the meeting spoke on the Ayodhya verdict and its political implications for the party.

The meeting of the apex policy making body of the party was the first after the September 30 verdict on the Ayodhya title suit.

Top party leaders, on the condition of anonymity, said there was a view in the CWC that the recent initiative of the Government on Kashmir had brought improvement in the conditions there.

"CWC was happy to note that the initiatives on Kashmir were on the right track," the leaders said.

The sources said that the meeting also took stock of preparations for celebrating the party's 125th anniversary.

Senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Ambika Soni, Janardhan Dwivedi, B K Hariprashad and Satyabrat Chaturvedi also attended the meeting.

The CWC has now been converted into Congress Steering Committee following the re-election of Sonia Gandhi as party chief for the fourth term.