New Delhi: Congress top brass on Friday met for over two hours apparently to find a way out of the continuing stalemate in Parliament over Opposition's demand for joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G Spectrum scam, which has paralysed proceedings for 11 days.
Party President Sonia Gandhi chaired the meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA's trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel.
After the core group meeting, the Prime Minister held brief parleys with the Home Minister seperately. However, there was no official word on what transpired at the meetings.
Mukherjee had earlier held two rounds of talks with the opposition leaders trying to find a solution to the logjam in Parliament.
Since Mukherjee's meetings yielded no breakthrough, the government intends to hold another meeting with them in the next few days.
Sources in the government had earlier indicated that they would keep exploring options to run Parliament smoothly and meetings of top party leaders over the issue could be taking place in this regard.
The government as well as Congress has so far ruled out JPC. A Congress leader said on condition of anonymity that it was "better to face criticism for not allowing JPC than to face selective leaks and insinuation for two years".
The leader reasoned that in JPC there will be members from different parties and there will be only politics over it.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal said, "It is not their (the Opposition) desire to unearth corruption. Their only intention is to make a political battle and nothing beyond. The issue of political battle needs to be fought politically."
The government has so far also ruled out adjourning the winter session of Parliament sine die before its schedule on December 13.
The Core Group meeting today is also the first since Bihar assembly polls threw up the worst-ever results for the party in last 10 years. The party had to be content with four out of the 243 seats it had contested.
The meeting comes a couple of days after a change of guard in party-ruled Andhra Pradesh where N Kiran Kumar Reddy has become the Chief Minister replacing K Rosaiah. The party has also announced that there would be a Deputy Chief Minister in the state from Telangana region.
Reddy is coming to Delhi on Saturday and will meet Sonia Gandhi to finalise the names of those who will be inducted in his ministry.
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