Reacting to the accusation of the BJP about the "dubious silence" of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Bihar, party general secretary Pranab Kumar Mukherjee said there was no silence on the part of Congress and its views on Bihar were well articulated publicly.

"I am happy that the BJP is watching every move of Congress and rightly so because we are the main Opposition party," he said.

Party spokesman Ajit Jogi declined to react about Bihar situation by saying that the two-member committee headed by former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil had come back to Delhi and the party was awaiting its report. "Let it (committee) submit the report. You will come to know what transpired," he said refusing to say if the committee had visited the Senari village where the massacre took place in Jehanabad district.

Asked about the demand for invokingthe Disturbed Areas Act in Jehanabad to prevent any retaliation by the opponent group, Mukherjee said he was not sure if the legal requirement could be fulfilled for using the Act. He was under the impression that the Act could be used only in the border areas.

Mukherjee clarified that Gandhi's programme schedule for her Kerala visit on March 31 was fixed long ago and had nothing to do with the "so called tea party hosted by Dr Subramanyan Swamy".

He said acceptance or rejection of invitation for a tea party hosted by Dr Swamy, MP and Janata Party president would be an "individual decision". These parties were not politically significant, he remarked.

Meanwhile, Sarv Jatiya Party (SJP), a break away group of ruling Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) headed by O P Jindal on Thursday merged with Congress expressing its faith in the leadership of Sonia. The SJP, an "unrecognised" party, had passed an unanimous resolution offering to merge with the Congress to end corruption in the country.

Haryana PradeshCongress chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Pranab Mukherjee, who is in charge of the Haryana affairs, welcomed the SJP members to the partyfold.