The agenda of the CWC was virtually set by former prime minister Chandra Shekhar through an open call today to dethrone the BJP government and that the Congress as the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha should take the lead in the installation of an alternate government.

The Congress response to Chandra Shekhar's open call was guraded when its spokesperson Ajit Jogi said the party held the former prime minister in high esteem and respected his sentiments. He, however, declined to comment on it on the ground that he had not seen the text of Shekhar's statement.

Caution seems to be the prime consideration of the party while finalising the strategy since the leadershipfelt a Congress-led government may face the similar problems of pulls and pressures from coalition constituents haunting the Vajpayee Government. A senior party leader said the dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu as a pre-condition for securing support from the AIADMK supremo J Jayalaitha may not be a problem for the Congress since it can always invoke the interim report of the Jain Comission which went into the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The commission had passed strictures against the Karunanidhi government for its failure to take steps to prevent the assassination.

Whether the Left parties, who are the constituents of the United Front of which the DMK is also a constituent and whose support is needed for the Congress to form the government, would agree to such a proposition remains to be seen. All these details have to be worked out before a viable alternative emerges, a senior Congress leader remarked.

The Congress has made it clear that it had decided to sit in theOpposition to respect the people's mandate. This did not mean they rule out the possibility of forming government, if the BJP-led coalition government fell owing to contradictions within its allies, a senior party leader said.