Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's reported willingness to enter into tie-ups with 'like-minded secular' parties has evoked mixed reaction within the party.

"It (Sonia's response on the issue) is relevant and in fitness of things. I think you have to be alive to the needs of the situation and disinclination to adapt to your (political) surroundings can be impractical," pointed out senior party leader and general secretary Kamal Nath.

He, however, struck a note of caution saying the issue is still under discussion in the party forums.

Almost five years back the party's Pachmarhi Declaration had laid down that it will refrain from coalescing with others on government formation. The declaration had said the party considered obstacles in the way of one-party governments a transient phase.

It, therefore, decided that coalitions will be considered only 'when absolutely necessary' and on the basis of agreed programmes, which would not weaken it or compromise its basic ideology.

But since then the Congress has been participating in coalition governments in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Maharashtra and Kerala.

Moreover, political circumstances in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh make it obvious that the Congress will have to be a part of a coalition in order to retain its relevance.

But many Congress leaders are haunted by the spectre of the fiasco that occurred in 1997 when Sonia went to Rashtrapati Bhavan claiming the support of 272 MPs (from various parties) -- sufficient to form a coalition government with simple majority.

But to the party's chagrin, Samajwadi Party chief Mulyam Singh Yadav at the last moment backed out leaving Sonia and her party in the lurch.

Many senior Congress leaders, however, gave the impression that 'a dead horse should not be flogged'.

In a strange twist of fate, Yadav has realised that it would be impossible to dislodge the Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government headed by Chief Minister Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh if the Congress does not extend support to it.

A former Congress spokesman indicated that the party's willingness for coalition in states stemmed from its leadership one-point desire that Sonia be projected as the prime minister when the occasion arose.

"That is the party's raison d'etre and nobody can contest the assumption," he said.