Dhawan, who presided over the PCC executive meeting here yesterday also managed to sort out differences between PCC president Sat Mahajan and a party secretary, G. S. Bali, advising the latter to avoid taking every issue to the press. Dhawan also made it clear that the high command had never and would not undermine the stature of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

AICC general secretary told media persons before returning to Delhi that there was no question of any change in the leadership of CLP and described Virbhadra Singh as a leader of the masses. He also ruled out any possibility of re-admitting HVC chief Sukh Ram into the party. "As far as AICC is oncerned, the chapter is closed," he remarked.

The issue of the Congress taking any support from Sukh Ram to either topple the Prem Kumar Dhumal government or formation of an alternative government did not figure at the PCC meeting. It was the PCC president, who alone had been talking about his agenda to topple the Dhumal government. Mahajan had even claimed that he was only waiting for a signal from Sonia Gandhi. But Dhawan made it clear that though the Congress had been awaiting an early collapse of the Vajpayee government in Delhi and all other BJP-led governments in the states but before such a thing happened, the party must be prepared to take up the responsibility to form the government, Dhawan said. "The time is, however, not ripe yet," he added.

Dhawan even intervened several times during the deliberations of the meeting and snubbed some of the leaders, who tried to raise issues either pertaining to the CLP leadership or certain reported actions of the high command. He named G. S. Bali for his statements against the PCC president and advised him to reform his behaviour. Dhawan later told some media persons that Bali had apologised for his mistake and promised to avoid any such controversies in future.

Yet another important issue, which figured was meeting of the Congress MLAs with Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. The PCC leaders sought party general secretary's advise on following some model code on the issue. Dhawan apparently did not see any harm in MLAs meeting the chief minister regarding development works or other issues relating to their constituencies but told them to keep CLP leader Virbhadra Singh informed about such meetings.

This issue assumes significance as the PCC leaders have been suspecting that the ruling party was making attempts to split the party and to make some Congress MLAs defect to join the government. The AICC general secretary also assured that he would discuss the matter in the Congress Working Committee and would like to frame some model code, which should be followed by the MLAs while meeting chief ministers of Opposition parties.

PCC president Sat Mahajan, when contacted told the ENS that the party proposes to organise a meeting of DCC presidents in Kangra next month and Dhawan has agreed to address the meeting.

The main agenda before him, as discussed in the executive would be to strengthen the party, he said. He denied any rift with Virbhadra Singh and said he was getting full cooperation from the CLP leader, MLAs and PCC members.

When asked about his agenda to topple the Dhumal government, Mahajan said "toppling the Dhumal government and bringing the Congress back to power were on his agenda even today. Let the time come, everyone will come to know about it,'' he added.