Friday, January 20 2006 09:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: The issue of coalition and alliances is expected to come to the fore at the 82nd Plenary session of Congress beginning here tomorrow (Jan 21,2006) under the shadow of political developments in Karnataka and return of the Bofors ghost which has suddenly shattered peace in the ruling party.

Meeting for the first time after the party returned to power at the Center ending its eight years of 'dry spell', Congress would be confronted with the problem of striking a balance between running a coalition at the Center and in states and strengthening the organization.

The plenary is being held at a time when Congress' coalition in neighboring Karnataka is on the rocks after a section of Janata Dal (JD) Secular (S) turned rebel and joined hands with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to stake claim to form the Government, a development which has come as a bolt from the blue for the high command.

The session is expected to hear a call for consolidation of secular forces and the party, whose USP was single party rule a decade back, is likely to make all 'politically correct' noises in the changed scenario when coalition is the order of the day.

The plenary is being held ahead of the assembly polls in five states, including West Bengal and Kerala where the principal adversary of Congress are Left parties supporting the Central coalition from outside.