The crucial issue of what to do at the Centre did figure in Sonia's remarks to the CWC when she said,``We would like to go to the post-poll scenario but we must first conclude the urgent organisational business, since we have a lot of business to transact.'' That crucial sentence was left hanging but in the end, the CWC haggled for a long time on what the party's membership fee should be. This deferred the party's decision on the Centre for around a week, when the CWC is slated to meet again.

Two views have taken shape in the Congress on the Centre. One view is that the party speed up its organisational toning up and then concentrate on unseating the BJP Government. The other view isthat the time is ripe to go in for the kill and something should be done in the current session of Parliament.

Aware of the dichotomy, Sonia left the issue open. The feeling in the CWC was that, in no way was the issue treated closed. With the BJP in the midst of a power struggle between various factions, the Congress feels it is the right moment to hit the BJP. The Left too feels that same way and over the last few days, the Congress and the Left have been discussing this matter.

The only hitch is to keep the wave in favour of the Congress going, while showing the people that the only course was to get the BJP Government out. The timing for this will hold centre stage in the Congress for a while now and the CWC kept this pending for ``lack of time'' in today's meeting.

That apart, the meeting was largely on the Karunakaran Committee's suggestions to amend the Congress constitution. Karunakaran has suggested that the tenure of office-bearers in the party be extended from two to three years, which hasbeen agreed to by the CWC.

What this means is that the elections due this year, for 10 elected CWC members and the AICC general secretaries, will be put off by a year. And unless Sonia goes in for a revamp, the people in the posts stay for another 12 months.

The other issue, a contentious one, was how much to hike the membership fee. Currently it is one Rupee a year, which has been the norm for decades like in other parties. However, following Sonia's orders not to accumulate funds for the party in an ``unsavoury'' fashion, the Congress has been facing a fund crunch.

One way to gather money is to raise the membership fee but this affects millions of people across the country. While an urban member can easily afford any amount the party seeks, it is the more important rural segment which will have to cough up the extra money. Given the penury in large areas of the country, the CWC debated at length on how much to fix the fee at.

Indications are that a hike has been cleared and the membership fee wouldnow be at least double, meaning two Rupees a year. There was also one view that it be made three Rupees and this is to be cleared in the next CWC meeting.