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NC working committee meeting on Sunday

The crucial National Conference working committee meeting, which remained inconclusive on Monday following sharp differences over whether the party should continue to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance, will resume discussion on the issue on July 16.

NC's relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the NDA, have been strained following the adoption of the State Autonomy Committee's report by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The BJP, which believes that the state's demand for autonomy is "anti-national", recently asked the NC to decide whether it wanted to continue to be a partner in the NDA.

However, a softening of stand on the part of the BJP was visible when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was in J&K in connection with the burial of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's mother, invited Abdullah to Delhi to discuss the issue of autonomy.

Party sources said both chief minister Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, a minister of state in the Vajpayee ministry, were likely to hold discussion with top NDA leaders.

Abdullah, meanwhile, is under tremendous pressure from his party colleagues to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government.

PTI

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