It was the most radical event in decades of Congress history and it came in a totally changed mood in the party which is now planning to return to 7, Race Course Road, sometime next year. The theme song was that Sonia will be Prime Minister with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh taking the lead in predicting she will be PM in a few months. Sonia's name itself was uttered at least once every two minutes making it more than 100 times in a day.

The Congress president was her cautious self when she played everything down. ``Our work doesn't end here. This is one more milestone in the long journey of revitalising the Congress,'' she said in her concluding remarks.In her morning opening address, she stuck to her line of having to do a lot more before the Congress can regain the trust of the people.

The BJP-led Government was attacked on most fronts and the current US attack on Iraq got a mention when Sonia deplored the ``violation of the UN Charter by two permanent members of the UN Security Council''. Basically, Sonia speech reflected her keenness to wait for a while, let the BJP grapple with tough decisions and then make a bid for power.

But her touch was really felt while she presided over a smooth vote for correcting the gender imbalance in the party. Most other parties in the country are squabbling over giving women more party posts but the AICC practically rushed into the 33 per cent demarcation after Sonia ordered it some weeks ago.

The reservation for women in party posts means the new CWC of 24 members will have eight women, unprecedented in Congress history. Likewise, the AICC is expected to have more than 300 women members at the minimum.

Soonenough, speculation began on who could make it to the CWC. The names of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Mahila Congress chief Ambika Soni, former MPs Margaret Alva and Girija Vyas and former CWC member Omem Deori were doing the rounds. The amendments to the Congress constitution, 18 in all, were unanimously agreed to by the 867 delegates present but it is upto Sonia to decide when to implement the new decisions.

Considering that the Congress expects to return to power soon, the smooth passage of the women's reservation policy is significant. When the time comes, women rivals in the Congress will be a factor the male leaders will have to contend with.

The Congress constitution has only been amended twice before and another important amendment today was the 20 per cent reservation for SC/STs, OBCs and minorities in party posts. Should the party not be able to meet these requirements, the Congress president has been empowered to relax the rules.

Partymembership will now hold for three years as will the terms of office-bearers, up from the current two-year limit. Membership fee has been hiked from Re 1 to Rs three but will hold for three years. Consequently, the Congress plenary session will now be held once every three years unlike every two years at the moment. Panchayat and Nagar Palika members shall be AICC members henceforth while the Congress Parliamentary Board will be expanded from eight to 10 members.

The Congress will have a trust with the president as ex-officio chairperson which will handle all the party's properties. The trust will have corollaries at the state and district level. And a Central Election Authority, on the lines of the Government's Election Commission, with a minimum of three members will conduct all organisational elections. Various cells, like legal, medical, minorities and ex-servicemen, will be formed at the PCC level and members are expected to subscribe to party organs from now on.

The amendments themselves wereexpected, after the CWC cleared them on December 10, but the timing and their implications are important. If and when the Congress comes to power, a third of its ministers should logically be women, a significant balance of the power equation. It is a crucial part of Sonia's plans to modernise the Congress and, by implication, the country's politics. To what extent it will succeed depends a lot on how much Congress leaders practise what they preached today.