Core group of Congress party meets to discuss Women's Reservation Bill - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

A core-group meeting of the Congress party is being held at the Prime Minister's residence (7, Race Course Road) here in the wake of postponement of the Women Reservation Bill in the Parliament on Monday. In addition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the meet is being participated by senior congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K.Antony, and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram. It commenced at 7.00 o'clock. Earlier, in the afternoon, the all-party meet called by Prime Minister Manomhan Singh over the Women's Reservation Bill was postponed to Tuesday just after it was briefly held at 4.15 p.m. on Monday. PM had called for an all-party meeting from 4.15 p.m. in the hope of arriving at a political consensus and avoid the Bill being put to a voice vote later this evening. Prior to this, the Prime Minister has had meetings with Congress stalwarts Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmed Patel and P.K.Bansal, UPA allies and with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party chief Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The latter two have announced a withdrawal of outside support to the government over the issue.