Date:02/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/02/stories/2004070206021100.htm

National

NCP panel to look into Sonia issue

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JULY 1 .The Nationalist Congress Party, which put on the back burner the question of the foreign origin of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, to have an electoral and power sharing alliance with her party, has now formed a committee to look into issues arising out of its position.

The committee headed by Sanat Mehta from Gujarat will study the NCP's position on the political spectrum, especially in view of its alliance with the Congress, from which it had separated.

The NCP general secretary and spokesman, D.P. Tripathy, told reporters here that the committee would submit its report to the party executive meeting in August. Answering questions on the rationale of separate existence of the NCP, he said that in countries such as Canada and the United States, parties did not have major differences, but yet they maintained separate identities.