The decision to include several Pawar baiters in the AICC like Sudhir Sawant or in the CWC (Sushil Shinde) without accommodating any of his supporters and her show cause notice to Datta Meghe goes to show the uneasy relationship between the two leaders.

The show cause notice seems to be calculated to nip in the bud dissent which might have otherwise swelled and constituted a veiled attack on her leadership. But no action was taken against Matang Singh who said stronger things when she decided to nominate defeated candidates Santosh Mohan Deb and Oscar Fernandes for the Rajya Sabha.

Action is seen to be initiated against Meghe because he is a Pawar acolyte. Meghe had questioned the machinations of those around her and this was obviously meant to be an expression ofunhappiness of the Pawar group,Sonia Gandhi is faced with a three-pronged challenge to revive the party. She will have to consolidate her gains in the states where the Congress has done well, like Rajasthan, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra; rebuild the party virtually from scratch where it was wiped out as in UP, Tamil Nadu and Punjab or where it showed a vulnerability as in Bihar and West Bengal; and prepare for the polls in three states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi which will determine her own clout in the party.

MP is proving to be a no-win situation. She has found it difficult to remove Digvijay because it might bring the blame to her doorstep if, after his removal as Chief Minister, the party makes a poor showing in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Digvijay Singh has all along been with 10, Janpath. But retaining him has made it that much more difficult for her to change the PCC chief, Urmila Singh, who may not be very effective but who is a tribal and a woman. Together the OBCs, SCsand STs comprise 85 per cent of the state's population and this is a group the Congress has to target in order to win, besides closing ranks. The party is better placed in Rajasthan, where it did better than expected in the recent elections. Sonia is thinking of sending a Jat as PCC chief there in place of Ashok Gehlot and the name of Ram Nivas Mirdha is being considered. The idea is to firm up the Jat support for the Congress. Rajasthan has never had a Jat chief minister in fifty years and this is an emotive issue with the community.

Sonia is not finding it easy to appoint even the old warhorse Narayan Dutt Tewari as UPCC chief because some of Jitendra Prasada's supporters have threatened to join the Naresh Aggarwal group in the state which made common cause with the BJP.

By choosing YC Rajasekhara Reddy to head the party in Andhra, Sonia has shown her preference for youth, who has won four LS elections, and is dynamic (and is incidentally with Rajesh Pilot). Her inclination for those with an electoralbase was evident in her choice of AICC secretaries, eighty per cent of whom are either Lok Sabha MPs or ex-MPs. She appointed Rajasekhara Reddy after bringing around his bete noire Vijay Bhaskar Reddy to the idea. The usually voluble Vijay Bhaskar Reddy has surprisingly been silent this time, at least so far. In Orissa also, she managed to get a stamp of consensus on her own candidate, H Biswal. JB Patnaik went along with her choice as long as she kept out Giridhar Gomango.

Sonia may or may not trust Pawar. But the fact is that without his 30-odd MPs from Maharashtra, the Congress would have just crossed the 100 mark and questions would have been raised about Sonia's political charm.

Had Kesri's removal been delayed even by three days, Sharad Pawar might have been the CPP leader. She could become CPP chairperson only after she took over as Congress chief and the constitution of the CPP was amended to allow for such a post.

Whatever be Pawar's feelings in the matter, he accepted the situation. He didnot protest when he was made only the CPP leader in the Lok Sabha, which is equivalent to being a floor leader. He also displayed grace by sharing his victory in Maharashtra with her. In a public statement he acknowledged that her visits to the State had had an impact.

Though the Congress is strongest today in Maharashtra, Sonia seems to be insecure about Pawar. Firming up Maharashtra for the Congress is hardly possible if the Congress President and Pawar work at cross purposes.