Sonia directs Congress to be ready for polls

Congress on Saturday decided to plunge into election mode, with party chief Sonia Gandhi directing senior leaders to draw up time-bound programmes and strategies to re-energise the party in all states.

At a meeting of party general secretaries of states, Gandhi assigned tasks to them to organise the party everywhere at all levels for five Assembly and the next Lok Sabha elections.

Gandhi also reviewed the progress of programmes assigned to the senior leaders by the party for implementation. Interestingly, the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal, which has taken the UPA-Left ties to the brink of a breakup, did not figure in the hour-long discussions Sonia Gandhi had with the top party functionaries.

Though the UPA constituents strongly favour the nuclear deal, they hold almost equally strident views against holding of early elections. A section of the party leadership also feels that nuclear deal is not an issue to fight elections. The Congress president has given party men a time-table for building the party at all levels.