20 May,2009 01:00 PM IST | | PTI
With a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet President Pratibha Patil to stake claim to form the new government.
This was decided unanimously at a meeting of the leaders of the United Progressive Alliance in which Gandhi was re-elected its Chairperson.
At a meeting of the Congress and its pre-poll allies at her residence, Gandhi's name was proposed by DMK chief M Karunanidhi and seconded by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
TC, with 19 MPs, and DMK with 18 are the two large constituents of the UPA coalition after Congress, which has won 216 seats.
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The coalition has already received support of a large number of parties and it has now the backing of around 315 MPs, much higher than the required 272 for a majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
She said Gandhi and Singh would meet the President at their convenience to stake claim. Banerjee said she had suggested that there should be a Common Minimum Agenda for which a committee should be formed.
She expressed concern over falling jobs and said there should be a relationship between industry and agriculture to protect employment. She also said that work for all and food for all should be the guiding principle for the new government.
