Singh had symbolised the liberalisation programme of the Congress which the Left parties had attacked. For some reason, it is felt that Mukherjee had reservations about going the whole hog on liberalisation.

In a disarmingly political move, Sonia called on CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet at his residence two weeks ago. She called up West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu who asked her to talk to Surjeet.

Surjeet met Mukherjee just before he left for Pachmarhi where the Congress begins its brainstorming session on Friday. One of the important items on its agenda is how to acquire a pro-poor image again and revive its base while going ahead with reforms.

Initially, Sonia had used Manmohan Singh to breakthe ice with the Left leaders. The former finance minister had called on Basu in Banga Bhavan when the Chief Minister was in Delhi. He also conveyed Sonia's invitation to CPI leader Indrajit Gupta, who has been the most unyielding of the Communist leaders towards the Congress. His comments about the Congress soon after he took over as Home Minister had created an uneasy relationship between the United Front and the Congress.

Gupta went to meet Sonia in her office in Parliament House. At one point during the conversation he is said to have complained about the way the Congress had constantly been criticising the Left. Sonia is believed to have retorted something to the effect, ``You also criticised my husband,'' and added: ``We can still work together.''

Sonia's stand has taken the Left leaders by surprise. It is ironical that it is Jyoti Basu and Mulayam Singh Yadav who are on the Congress' case, not for being power-hungry this time, but for its apparent reluctance to form an alternativegovernment.

Mukherjee has also been chosen to talk to the Left leaders because of the Bengal connection. The CPM is a West Bengal-dominated party. Mukherjee had won his Rajya Sabha seat four years ago with the help of the Left parties there. (Even as she is using Pranab, Sonia is also keeping her channels open to Siddharth Shankar Ray. It is felt that Ray may bring back Mamta Banerjee into the Congress at the appropriate moment.)

Mukherjee told The Indian Express: ``We have lost our focus on the poor, the downtrodden, the scheduled castes and tribes. Our trouble is that sometimes we consider a part as the whole. Today, if there is a middle class of 200 million, there are 700 million who are not.''

Even as the party thrashes out ideas at Pachmarhi to find its ideological moorings again or to get its idiom right -- after all, Narasimha Rao had talked about the ``middle path' -- there are indications that the Congress may come round to accepting the United Front's Common Minimum Programme.

But theLeft wants to work things out in greater detail. What will be the Congress position on the opening up of the insurance sector? Or on the disinvestment of the Public Sector navratnas? The BJP government has mooted a proposal to restrict government stake in public sector units to no more than 49 per cent and this has come in for criticism from the Left parties. The Congress has responded positively to the Left proposal to earmark adequate funds for the Public Distribution System.