Well, nothing really, if those frequenting 10 Jan Path are to be believed. Sonia doesn't really seem to have a plan for the Congress at this point in time. She's simply waiting for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government to further mess up its affairs - a difficult task, you'd assume, but then nothing's impossible in politics. So her plan is not to have a plan till campaigning time comes around, and well, something will have to be put into place, even by default. That's quite a case of P V Narasimha Rao-itis.

But here's some inside scoop. According to cogitations among the denizens of 10 Jan Path, ``Madam'' is unlikely to be contesting from either the family's traditional pocket boroughs of Amethi or Rae Bareli in the Northern State of Uttar Pradesh. Simple reason - the BJP has picked the Congress' pockets of both these seats so these cannot be considered safe enough for a Prime Minister wannabe.

So instead, as the old Gandhi family sycophants used to chant, ``Amethi ki danka, beti Priyanka'' is likely to be invited to contest from one of these seats, so keep it in the family.

The 42-year-old Sonia, on the other hand, has lined up some seats in Andhra Pradesh, which are certain Congress winnings. As a senior Congressman aptly explained, ``If you gave a donkey the Congress ticket, even a donkey could win these seats.''

There are a couple of reasons for such a decision as well. First, Sonia can never be certain of winning any UP constituency. Therefore, she does not want to be saddled with a seat where she would be required to put in some frenetic campaigning. Given that she is going to be the Congress' principal and only star campaigner, such an electoral trap would virtually orphan shaky candidates elsewhere, craving for a dose of the Gandhi charisma or whatever to scrape through.

The second reason is that by blooding Priyanka, she also hopes to deflect some of the criticism over her Italian origins.

However, the other Gandhi kid, Rahul, is not in the picture. Rahul, who incidentally has an interesting Colombian girlfriend, will not be indoctrinated. Sonia's thinking apparently is based on security concerns. She does not want to expose both her children given recent Indian history, which has seen two members of the family. Mother-in-law Indira and husband Rajiv assassinated.

However, all that remains in the realm of speculation that only the future, or at least, the months of September/October will clarify.

Hat is very real at this point in time is the demotivation within the Congress ranks. It has nothing to do with Sonia, it has to do with the second rung of leadership.

Actually, Sonia also appears to be at fault as even Congress apologists concede. She has gotten into the habit of forming committees to tackle any issue that crops up, filling them with the usual chamchas who crawl around 10 Jan Path.

For instance, if Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and Arjun Singh are placed on a committee, nothing gets done simply because they can't stand each other. Actually, each of them believes that if Sonia is forced to retire from the contest for Prime Ministership because Sonia was born in Ovassanjo, 80 km away from Turin, each could be the leading contender. So they view each other with growing suspicion born of ambition.

So these committees never meet, nothing gets done. Since all of them are also terrified of Sonia, when they do have to report to her, they simply place the blame on each other's tardiness. Why Sonia still persists with humoring this bunch rankles the general Congress janta.

The only consolation for the Congress is that matters are just worse for arch-rival BJP. Small consolations could lead to consolation prizes.