Food Security Bill: Govt reaches out to Mulayam

Seeking to form a consensus on the ambitious Food Security Bill, the government has reached out to Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party is opposed to the measure.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath had held discussions with Yadav yesterday.
The consultations came close on the heels of the meeting of the Congress Core Group where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi deliberated on the way ahead.
The meeting took place after Shinde held discussions with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Samajwadi Party general secretary Ramgopal Yadav on the issue. Shinde had also held discussion with JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav.

The Union Cabinet had put on hold its plans to bring an Ordinance on Food Security in the face of opposition within and outside, and decided to make another attempt to evolve a consensus to get it through in a special Parliament session.
A view in the Congress is that there is no need to handle the Food Security Bill issue like the Indo-US nuclear deal and government should reach out to the opposition to get its support.