So the three rebels have been summarily chucked out of the Congress. But does that mean that all the conspirators have been dumped?

No way. The fact of the matter is that the entire Congress Working Committee was playing its role of chamcha to Sonia Gandhi only for a limited period. They wanted her to ensure a scenario wherein the party would be in a position to grab power at the Centre after the September Lok Sabha elections.

Unfortunately, Sonia got wind of the politicking Sharad Pawar, Purno A Sangma and their cronies were up to.

Pawar's original gameplan was to allow Sonia to hit the campaign trail and garner enough votes for the Congress before striking in August. By then it would be too late for the party to recoup by election time and Sonia would be baffled. If Sonia did not step down gracefully at that time, then Pawar would simply have split the Congress, and he expected most Congressmen to forgo their overt craving to be sycophants to feed a more urgent desire, that for power.

He visualised an action plan wherein he would have carved up the Congress and assumed leadership of the Fourth (or Fifth or Sixth, or Nth of whatever) Front that came to be. Just like former Prime Minister V P Singh did in 1989 after breaking away from the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress. Since under Sonia he had no chance of becoming the Prime Minister, he could then grab the top job by banding together the likes of the Samajwadi Party, The Trinamul Congress of Mamata Banerjee, the ruling Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of J Jayalalitha, and the Leftists, and then become the ``true'' secular, democratic alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Of course, the adjective ``patriotic'' (read Born in India) would also be added.

As for V P Singh, what's he up to? He wants to play Bheeshma. He ahs been dropping tantalising hints about returning to politics and he may have egged on Pawar to make a fool of himself, though he obviously has the wherewithal to do that unto himself. Singh would have addressed a couple of Press conferences and would have become the prime votary of the Pawar-led formation.

However, Sonia, as we mentioned earlier, gauged that something stank. And the odour appeared to emanate from Pawar. So she decided to make him come out in the open so that the party could be cleansed and then revived before the polls arrived. So she got the Gandhi family pet, R K Dhawan, to do the barking and snapping, forcing Pawar into making his stand public. The poor timing was not of his making, the only thing Pawar can be said not to have messed up of his own volition.

However, the summer cleaning process in the Congress will continue for some time. There are some other suspects that Sonia may wish axed before returning to the helm. Those lined up for the putsch are:

Rajesh Pilot: Has made rebellion his hobby. Has a big enough mouth. That is fortunate for him since his foot then fits perfectly into it. A rebel without a pause he had muttered warning about the issue of projecting Sonia as the prospective PM being deferred.

Ghulam Nabi Azad: The typical Congressi weathercock - will tilt whichever way the wind id blowing. However, owes Pawar big. Owes his Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra to him. Had no other way of entering Parliament since he couldn't get elected rat-catcher in his native Jammu and Kashmir.

Jitendra Prasada: The former party vice-president was among those who had been active in getting Pawar elected to the CWC.

Meira Kumar: Was fired from her post as party general secretary. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit also wants to deny her the party ticket from the Karol Bagh Lok Sabha seat and Sonia trusts Dixit. So suddenly Kumar has taken to recalling the fact that her father, Jagjivan Ram, was unable to slime his way to Prime Ministership since he was blocked by the Congress.

P V Narasimha Rao: The most dubious of them all. Has been meeting the principal conspirators - Chandra Shekhar, P A Sangma, regularly. However, refuses to come out of the closet. But isn't that just his style?

Sitaram Kesri: The former Congress president is dazed and confused, finished off in the party and couldn't lost either way. But may be willing to tilt towards the rebels and has been confabulating with Sangma. After all, his heart does lie with his protégé Tariq Anwar.

Vijay Bhaskar Reddy: The Andhra leader once dreamt of becoming PM but has been reduced to a reduced to a cipher in his home state. Is completely lost and even if the Congress were to win the State Assembly polls this year (a definite possibility) it will be Rajshekhar Reddy who will replace N Chandrababu Naidu.