Sonia is scheduled to speak at the National Sikh Council's celebration of Guru Nanak's birth anniversary at the FICCI Auditorium in the afternoon and Congress circles are keen to see the outcome. Should she finally attend and speak, it will be the first important speech from her side on an issue which the Congress hasn't been able to handle convincingly.

Some days ago, Ahluwalia criticised Sonia's choosing H K L Bhagat as the head of the party's Delhi Campaign Committee with Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Dharam Dass Shastri as other members. All the four have been alleged to have played roles in the 1984 anti-Sikh riot.

The Congress has paid heavily for the 1984 massacre and is still not in a position to gain the Sikh votes in bulk.Ahluwalia hit the nail on the head when he asked what sort of message Sonia wants to send the Sikhs, though his own motives have been questioned by his party colleagues.

However, the Ahluwalia episode has taken the Congress aback and even its efforts, through CWC member Arjun Singh, to woo Sikh leaders in Delhi hasn't worked so far. Since then, the Congress has sent Ahluwalia a showcause notice for his act of rebellion. Following this, he has actually threatened to campaign against the Congress's chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit in Gole Market.

The former minister, who was once a Rajiv loyalist, is pushing for an apology from Sonia for the 1984 riots but that isn't likely to come on his demand. Sonia has in the past regretted the riots, the first time a Congress president did so. But more is expected from rebels like Ahluwalia and a large section of the Sikh community.

Amid all this, Sonia has been listed as the chief guest in tomorrow's function. Though the National Sikh Council is notexactly a universally recognised body, it does mark an attempt by 10, Janpath to reach out to Sikhs. Even silence from her side is bound to be interpreted variously in the charged political atmosphere.

And, November 25 isn't far away and Sikhs can influence poll results in Delhi and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.