Sonia supper may decide Opp course

Apart from leaders of the CPI(M), CPI, SP, RJD, Muslim League and NCP, former PMs Chandra Shekhar and Deve Gowda are also on the confirmed guest list.

The official agenda is floor coordination in the coming Budget Session but some Congressmen suggest the dinner is of far greater import. They see it as acceptance of Sonia by the rest of the secular spectrum and part of a nascent move towards building an alliance to take on the BJP in the next general elections.

These Congressmen, who want the party to bury the anti-coalition sentiments of the Panchmarhi Declaration of 1998, feel the party should move towards alliance politics.

But this view is far from universal. Many in the party still believe in the Panchmarhi formulation which says ‘‘the party considers the present difficulties in forming one-party governments a transient phase in the evolution of our polity’’. It adds: ‘‘coalition will be considered only when absolutely necessary and that, too, on the basis of agreed programmes that will not weaken the party or compromise its basic ideology’’.

The dilemma before the Congress, a senior leader confesses, is that while an alliance of secular parties is necessary to meet the Hindutva wave, the ground reality is that such an alliance will be detrimental for the party.

Congressmen on both sides of the divide are, however, united on one thing: that the party should pitch for the ‘‘moral leadership’’ of the secular forces by virtue of its being the oldest political party in the country.

But whether those who have fought the Congress much of their lives will accept this along with the dishes served on Sunday remains to be seen.