Congress core group to discuss post poll strategy this evening

After facing a difficult election, the Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, are expected to deliberate on Monday evening on the strategy ahead.

The Congress core group, headed by Sonia, will hold consultations at a time when exit poll results would be out, giving indications of the shape of things to come when results are declared on May 16.

While the BJP, under its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, is upbeat about the prospects, Congress leaders are claiming that the UPA III will come to power.

Only last week, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that the Congress has a “very good chance” of forming a government under its leadership with some allies.

His remarks had come amid talk of an “enlarged” UPA—III to stop Narendra Modi from coming to power.

A senior party leader had floated the idea of an “enlarged” UPA—III taking on board new allies and keeping open the issue of leadership to stop Modi from becoming the Prime Minister.

“All options are on the table and no option is off the table. It all depends upon the numbers we get and the BJP gets and the margin between them,” a senior party leader, who declined to be identified, had said echoing the sentiments of a section of the party.

Another section, however, is advocating that the party should sit in the opposition if it comes out with reduced numbers.

The argument of this section is that in such a situation, the party can come up the winner on its own in the next Lok Sabha elections.