New Delhi:
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will interact with party MPs at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting today. The meeting takes place amid challenges galore for the party and the government.
At the meeting in the Capital, the UPA chairperson is expected to unveil her party's strategy on the way ahead. Her address is likely to focus on upcoming Assembly polls in five states including Uttar Pradesh.
Later in the evening, she will host a dinner for party MPs at a hotel.
The CPP meeting is being held at a time when the Lokpal Bill is being debated intensely. The government's version of the bill is likely to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow; the party is trying to keep its MPs on the same page.
The meeting also comes in the backdrop of the government's FDI in retail move being put on hold and key allies calling for greater coordination in the UPA.
After the suspension of the decision allowing FDI in retail, the talk in UPA is that the Congress will have to walk the extra mile on all major issues to keep the allies on board.
Sonia Gandhi's address at the CPP is expected to highlight the broad contours of the party's strategy for the Assembly elections in five states including in the crucial state of Uttar
Pradesh, where Rahul Gandhi is leading the campaign charge of 'Mission 2012'.
The CPP meeting is be the first such meeting to be addressed by Sonia Gandhi in the last few months. The Congress President had skipped the Monsoon Session in July-August on account of being ill. She had gone abroad for surgery for an unspecified ailment at that time.