Besides compliments from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee got a rare relief on Friday. The party decided to cancel the Core Committee meeting it holds every Friday.
This was after Mukherjee told the party brass that he would be busy with media interactions after the Budget and might not be in able to attend the meeting, usually held at the prime minister's residence. At night, Ahmed Patel informed Mukherjee that the meeting had been cancelled and he could devote his time to post-Budget interactions.
