Sonia, Pawar meet amid Cong-NCP war of words

NEW DELHI: In the middle of the Congress-NCP war of words over coalition management, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar met at 10 Janpath on Thursday night. The meeting is seen as an attempt by both leaders to bring about a thaw in the increasingly frosty Congress-NCP relationship.

Though there was no official version on the meeting from either side, there are indications that both leaders discussed issues ranging from steps taken to address the crisis in agriculture, the forthcoming elections in the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the coming assembly elections in UP.

Mr Pawar met Ms Gandhi on the same day when he met railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to discuss the forthcoming BCCI polls, Mr Pawar is president of the cricket body. There were reports that Mr Pawar’s arch-rival in cricket politics, Jagmohan Dalmiya, has been trying to avenge his last defeat in the hands of NCP chief by forming an alliance with the Congress and RJD chief.

While the Congress controls many state cricket bodies’ voting patterns in the BCCI, Mr Yadav can swing two of them — Bihar and the railway cricket set-ups. It could be possible that Mr Pawar, like he did with Mr Yadav, could have sought Ms Gandhi’s support to mobilise the Congress votes in his favour.

The Sonia-Pawar meeting also comes on the eve of the Congress chief ministers’ conclave at Nainital where the main theme for discussion will be the crisis in agriculture. The AICC has been rooting for a relief package for the farming sector and there were indications that the PMO, the agriculture and finance ministries have been working on the package.

After the NCP’s Dehra Dun meet, held last week, charged the Congress with ‘bad coalition management,’ Mr Pawar has been hinting at forming a third front for the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.