Friday, June 10 2005 15:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Surat: With an eye on the coming Bihar Assembly elections, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today (Jun 10, 2005) urged UPA (United Progressive Alliance) leaders to sink their differences and fight unitedly to defeat the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and "communal forces" there.

Appealing to all secular, democratic and left parties to work with better coordination and understanding, the NCP National Convention adopted a political resolution, which asked Pawar to take initiatives to bring about a better understanding among the UPA leaders.

Advocating the evolution of a system for working of the United Progressive Alliance and for better coordination with left and other supporting parties as in Kerala and West Bengal, the convention observed that it would help the UPA Government perform better besides projecting a brighter image of the coalition.

Prominent UPA leaders including Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan and top NCP leaders were present at the meeting, which concluded today.

The Convention also passed a significant economic resolution, proposed by Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, which called for economic reforms with a human touch even as it urged the Central Government to "absorb" a certain portion of the proposed hike in Petrol prices.

Patting itself for the decisive win of Congress-NCP Democratic Front that was re-elected to power in Maharashtra, NCP said it was expanding its base in States like Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand. NCP nominees have been voted to power in 12 State assemblies in all.