Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday held deliberations with senior party leaders Pranab Mukherjee, A.K. Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad against the backdrop of developments in Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka.
The Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel was also present at the meeting at her residence.
Though there was no official word about the deliberations, the presence of Mr Azad was significant in the sense that he was the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and currently is the AICC general secretary in-charge of the party affairs in Karnataka.
Sources said the party would apply a “wait-and-watch” policy with regard to the BJP’s decision to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on the Republic Day. In Karnataka, it has decided to back fully governor H.R. Bhardwaj. The confrontation between the ruling Congress and the main Opposition BJP could also influence the coming Budget Session of Parliament.
Congress insiders are optimistic that the BJP could be isolated on these issues as rest of the Opposition and even the NDA allies may not rally behind it. But the corruption could unite the Opposition in the Budget Session.
The Congress and the BJP are engaged in a war of words over the flag-hoisting issue, with the ruling party accusing the latter of engaging in “political opportunism” while the Opposition party has accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Omar Abdullah government of “surrendering” to separatists and showing “disproportionate and panic reaction”.