CWC to meet today, to discuss Lokpal issue

This will be the first formal meeting of the apex policy making body to take stock of the political situation after the CWC was reconstituted in March.

Deliberations of the Congress top brass` comes ahead of the all-party meeting being convened on the Lokpal bill issue on July 3 and the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning from August 1, which by all indications is expected to be a tumultuous affair.

The issue of bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal has become a ticklish issue. The draft bill of the government which opposes the inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and conduct of MPs inside Parliament, contrary to the stand of Team Anna.

The CWC has met twice earlier after reconstitution by party chief Sonia Gandhi but those were meetings to condole the deaths of party veteran Arjun Singh and Arunachal Chief Minister Khandu Dorjee respectively.

The meeting comes at a time when the party is under attack from a belligerent Opposition and sections of civil society over corruption and has launched a countrywide public campaign to "expose" what it calls their "grand design to usurp power through undemocratic means".