Sonia,Rahul may skip rally with Didi

In what may come as a reflection of the nature of alliance between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal Assembly elections.

In what may come as a reflection of the nature of alliance between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress TMC in West Bengal Assembly elections,the Congress remains non-committal about the presence of its star campaigners,Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,at a joint rally to be organised by the two parties as a show of unity. Instead,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to represent the Congress at the joint rally,which will be attended by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.

Incidentally,the planned show of unity may not come before the first two phases of polling involving over one-third of the total 294 constituencies. The joint rally is likely to be organised on April 23,the day of the second phase of polling,or the next day,said Congress sources. Out of the 104 constituencies going to polls in the first two phases,the Congress will be contesting 48 as per its seat-sharing agreement with the TMC. The TMC earlier agreed to give only 65 seats to its alliance partner much to the chagrin of a section of Bengal Congress.

Congress sources said Sonia and Rahul will be campaigning separately for party candidates for the first phase of election. Given that the ban on the use of loud speakers and microphones at open-air functions will be lifted only from April 14,they will have two-and-a-half days to campaign ahead of April 18 polling,according to Congress leaders.

Sources scotched speculation about any differences between the two parties. We could not have fixed any date before April 23-24 for the joint rally as the Prime Minister is scheduled to go to China from where he will return on April 17. Then he has prior commitments. Anyway,since we will be announcing the joint rally much before the first phase,people will already get the message of unity. There is no question of any misunderstanding in our alliance, a senior Congress leader from West Bengal told The Indian Express.

Congress sources said Sonias participation in the joint rally is still undecided. She also has to campaign for party candidates in other states. Her participation will depend on her availability, said a Congress source.

The seat-sharing agreement between the two parties has left many in Bengal Congress resentful. Due to Mamatas take-it-or-leave-it approach,the Congress had to come down from its demand for 98 seats to 65,even though the party leaders had earlier maintained that anything less than 75 will not be honourable for us. Many sitting MLAs of the Congress,therefore,lost their seats.