UPA govt keen on proving its strength early: PM tells Prez

New Delhi, Jul 10 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today informed President Pratibha Devisingh Patil that he and his Cabinet colleagues ''are keen'' on convening a special session of the Lok Sabha ''early'' to prove the UPA government's majority on the floor of the House.

Dr Singh, who called on Ms Patil at her request, told the President that he would inform her of the date for summoning the Lok Sabha session by tomorrow evening, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said.

The confidence vote is being taken in the wake of the 59 MPs of the Left parties withdrawing their support to the UPA government in protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Manmohan Singh government immediately announced that it would go ahead with the deal as it still enjoyed majority support in the Lok Sabha, with the 39-member Samajwadi Party and a few other smaller parties coming to its rescue.

The PM-President meeting lasted about 30 minutes in which Dr Singh also apprised Ms Patil of his visit to Japan to attend the G8 meeting.

The date for the special Lok Sabha session would be taken after a meeting of the UPA coordination committee tomorrow morning and of the Congress Working Committee in the evening.

Meanwhile, the Congress' core group met today to discuss the fast changing political developments. Besides Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Dr Singh, it was attended by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other senior ministers of the party.

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