This was observed after an important meeting of the UPA here on Tuesday. It was attended by Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K.Antony, Trinamool Congress Chief Ms Mamata Bannerjee, NCP leader Praful Patel, Union Minister and the leader of National Conference Dr. Farqooq Abdullah, DMK leader T. R. Baalu and leader of the Muslim League E. Ahmed.
The meeting of UPA leaders was an apparent show of unity of the ruling alliance in the wake of issues like the Lokpal Bill, the meeting has been convened at a time when the process of drafting the Lokpal Bill will be completed by 30th June.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi who is the UPA Chairperson and leaders of several of the constituents of the ruling alliance met on a day when the schedule for the Monsoon Session of the Parliament was announced.
Though DMK supremo M Karunanidhi was in the Capital, he did not attend the meeting and instead sent Parliamentary Party leader T R Balu to represent the party at the high level meeting.
Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi has been jailed in the 2G spectrum scam and on Tuesday went to the Tihar Jail for meeting her, his second visit there in the past one month.
Congress Spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan talking to reporters separately dismissed suggestions that the arrest of Kanimozhi, who has been denied bail by the Supreme Court only Monday, has had an adverse impact on the party’s ties with the DMK.
National Conference Chief and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said that the Prime Minister has already decided on convening an all party meeting, indicating that it would be held soon.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Praful Patel of the NCP, Union Ministers E Ahmad of the IUML were present at the meeting along with senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Ahmad Patel.