NEW DELHI: The government came under renewed pressure to revisit the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders at a brainstorming meeting of the ruling Congress on Friday.Petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily responded to the demand by promising to hold a separate meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister P Chidambaram to discuss the financial implications of raising the cap from six to nine or 12 cylinders.A senior leader, who did not wish to be named, told ET that after the discussion at the party's samvaad baithak, the party expected the government to raise the quota of subsidised cylinders."This could be done in a phased manner, by increasing the cap from six to nine and then, closer to the parliamentary elections, to 12. But all this depends on the discussions between Moily and Chidambaram," the leader said.The Centre had in September announced that domestic consumers would get only up to six subsidised LPG cylinders a year and that they would have to pay the market price for every additional cylinder.The six-hour-long meeting at Surajkund was attended by 66 members, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Working Committee members, Cabinet ministers and ministers of state who have independent charge.Gandhi set the tone of the meeting by stressing on the need for better coordination between the party and the government, improved implementation of the Congress-led UPA government's flagship programmes, passing on the message of economic reforms agenda of the government and ensuring that the promises made to the electorate in the Congress manifesto are delivered.Gandhi told the gathering that a coordination group with three sub-groups had been set up within the party. "With one-and-a-half years to go for the next Lok Sabha elections, both the party and the government have to work cohesively together so that we secure a renewed mandate," she said, signalling that the party was fully in election mode.After the Congress president, the prime minister and the finance minister spoke in detail about the economic challenges facing the country.Singh expressed concern over growing fiscal deficit and said, "the biggest hurdle in the path of growth is the increasing fiscal deficit. The difference between government expenditure and earnings is growing over the last few years. We were able to bring down fiscal deficit to 2.5% in 2007-08. But with the global economic slowdown in 2008-09 and 2009-10, we had to increase government expenditure and our fiscal deficit grew. To reduce fiscal deficit we need to increase our earnings and reduce our expenditure."The prime minister then spoke about the increasing subsidy bill, the main contributor to the widening deficit. The finance minister outlined a roadmap for restoring high growth. He said the first step was fiscal consolidation, followed by the need to stabilise the value of the rupee, encouraging foreign capital inflows and direct transfer of cash subsidy to the intended beneficiaries.More than 40 party leaders and central ministers put forth their views on the political and challenges that the party is confronting, raising concerns over the growing perception of corruption and governance deficit.A senior leader told ET that senior minister Kamal Nath said that the Opposition was setting the agenda in the media and that the party had been unable to connect with the electorate.Nath said there was an urgent need to reconnect with the masses and also to engage with the media. Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh said Congress was losing its traditional vote bank of tribals, with RSS and BJP making inroads into remote tribal areas. This could affect the Congress in the assembly elections as well as the Lok Sabha polls, Singh cautioned the party, the leader said.Congress general secretary and party scion Rahul Gandhi carried forward the agenda set in his recent speech at Ramlila Maidan, as he spoke about expediting decision-making in government and improving the delivery mechanism for the common man.Senior Congress leader and chairman of the media department Janardan Dwivedi told the media, "Rahul ji spoke about the challenges before the organisation and the party.He said Congress has been able to tackle all challenges before it, so there is no reason why it should not be able to tackle the present situation. He also spoke about bringing transparency in the system and systematically opening it. He also stressed on expediting decision-making in the government.""It is the same Congress which had brought nationalisation of banks and it is the same Congress which liberalised the economy," a leader present at the meeting quoted Rahul as having said at the meet.