New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi today (Jan 7, 2004) said that the process was on to cobble-up an alliance of like-minded parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"We will be talking to like-minded parties. We are already in the process of talking with secular parties to firm up a front to take on BJP in the next polls," Gandhi told reporters emerging out of over four hour-long Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting.

Gandhi said the party was open to talks to any party, which has no links with BJP.

Asked if the party was ready to go for an alliance with NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), Gandhi said, "We have been talking with political parties to firm up an alliance".

Asked if Karnataka and Maharashtra Assembly polls are going to be preponed, Gandhi said she was not aware of it.

About induction of her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Vadra into active politics as has been recommended by the Pranab Mukherjee Committee, which went into party's debacle in three States recently, Gandhi merely said the matter was not discussed at the CWC.

Asked if there were any difficulties in the formation of a secular front, the Congress President said, "there are always difficulties in life, but we are ready to face these challenges".

She said the CWC, which met after the previous meeting on December 7, discussed the Pranab Mukherjee Committee report and also how to prepare the party, its manifesto and its election strategy for the coming Lok Sabha polls.