Congress core group meets to discuss government formation

NEW DELHI: The Congress core group met today to discuss the political situation and issues related to government formation following the impressive performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the Lok Sabha elections.

The strategic meeting, held at Seven Race Course Road, was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and Defence Minister A K Antony amongst others, party sources said.

It was the first high-level meeting in which the top Congress leadership discussed whether to take on board independents or parties of the Fourth Front like Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal to form the government.

The UPA is short of a dozen seats to reach the majority mark of 272 in Parliament.

Another meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is scheduled to take stock of the situation following the poll results.

The sources said that after the CWC meeting, Congress leadership would hold discussions with the allies to finalise the details of government formation.