The move comes amid red faces at 24, Akbar Road, and the reactions of other Tamil Nadu parties who quickly adopted an "I-told-you-so" attitude in highlighting the differences between the Congress and the AIADMK.

The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) unit has been told by the high command to play down its hurt and anger at Sonia's embarrassment, when she waited in vain for Jayalalitha at a public meeting, before finally beginning her speech. TNCC leaders apparently protested but were told in strong terms to play ball with the AIADMK even if it meant swallowing a bit of pride.

What has hit the local Congress unit hard is that the constituency where Sonia and Jayalalitha were to campaign together, the only such meeting planned during the electioneering, was one inwhich TNCC president T Ramamurthy himself was contesting. But he has been ordered to keep the "larger interest" of the party in mind.

Which, apparently, he has done while approaching the AIADMK on Monday to fix a fresh venue for a rally where the Sonia-Jaya show could take off. So far there hasn't been any favourable response from the AIADMK but the Congress is hoping to turn things around. The feeling is that only a fresh meeting where the two women would be jointly seen can undo Sunday's damage.

The Congress leadership here was taken aback at the turn of events which they didn't anticipate given the normalcy on the surface between the two parties.

The two are in an alliance which was worked out after a brief period of bitterness when the AIADMK allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sonia, in fact, has been keen from the beginning on keeping Jayalalitha in good humour. Which is why she attended the famous tea party here which triggered off political events ultimately leading to the fall of theVajpayee government.

The Congress took care to play down any "unintentional" hurt that may have been caused to Jayalalitha by Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Manmohan Singh's remarks that corrupt leaders must be punished. Singh himself, though, was only willing to go half the distance. He stressed on Monday that he said nothing wrong nor had he targeted the AIADMK chief.

Singh said: "I have already made it clear that corruption cases should not be used to vilify political leaders. At the same time, the law must take its course and punish the guilty. I was part of the seat-sharing talks in Chennai and I had already said it there." Singh had said in a television programme that no one was above the law and anyone guilty must be punished.

It was in reference to a question on whether the Congress had compromised with corruption by allying with Jayalalitha and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Laloo Yadav. And this was used by some sections of the AIADMK to explain why their leader didn't stir out ofher Chennai house until it was too late, and then claim she was mobbed by a "sea of humanity" which refused to let her pass. Singh rubbished this theory saying he could hardly have had anything to do with it.

However, others in Tamil Nadu were quick to join issue. Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) leader P Chidambaram accused Jayalalitha of deliberately boycotting the rally saying the Congress must have by now learnt how much Jayalalitha could be depended upon after her failure to turn up at the meet. Three other party leaders called it calculated disrespect.

"Had the Congress heeded our advice not to align with the AIADMK, this would not have happened," Chidambaram said. TMC vice-president S G Vinayakamurthy, general secretary Peter Alphonse and treasurer D Sudarsanam said Jayalalitha's act had hurt the sentiments of true lovers of Rajiv Gandhi.

"If she was busy with the campaign, at least she could have deputed one of the senior party leaders to the Villupuram meeting. This is nothing but a planned attemptto show disrespect to the leader of a national party," they said, adding it was a pity that a senior Congress leader and South Chennai Congress candidate, V Dandayuthapani, waited for over six hours to receive Jayalalitha on the outskirts of the city.

MGR-Kazhagam leader R M Veerappan said Jayalalitha's absence was planned as the AIADMK leader did not want to project Sonia as the next prime minister. He added the AIADMK leader wanted to "defeat as many Congress candidates as possible".

Privately, even Congress leaders probably felt the same but in public they were putting on a brave face. The coming days should show if Jayalalitha condescends to another rally with Sonia and if yes, would she attends it.