New Delhi, Aug 6 (ANI): The UPA on Monday announced constitution of a Sonia Gandhi led- coordination committee to ensure cohesive functioning of the alliance, a demand that was placed by ally NCP during its recent stand-off with Congress.
The Committee includes leaders of all the coalition partners, though key allies DMK, TMC and NCP are yet to name their representatives.
Besides Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are the other members from Congress.
The development comes a fortnight after NCP leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel threatened to pull out of the alliance.
Yielding to NCP's demand, Congress had on July 24 agreed to put in place such a coordination mechanism after Pawar and Patel met the Prime Minister and Gandhi and discussed the week-long stand-off during which the two leaders had also offered to quit the Cabinet.
Among the allies, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh represents his party RLD on the panel, which also comprises E Ahmed of the IUML and Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference.
The committee is scheduled to meet for the first time on Wednesday. (ANI)


