Scores of Congress leaders rushed to 10, Janpath in dismay to convey the damage done by Sonia's efforts. Apparently, there was a veritable deluge of bad news from all and sundry and Sonia was inundated by complaints from leaders of many states that she had done the ``wrong thing''. Some CWC members were slated to raise the issue in this evening's meeting of the CEC to select candidates for the rest of the constituencies in the country.

Following this outpouring, Sonia asked AICC general secretary Pranab Mukherjee to make the announcement after which he gave journalists the news. And after Wednesday's joke that the Congress wanted a little suspense over Sonia's nomination, which backfired badly on theCongress, Mukherjee made no such facetious comments today. Instead, he seemed mellow enough to say that he didn't want any mystery this time.

So Sonia will fight two formidable candidates, Sushma Swaraj from Bellary and Sanjay Singh from Amethi. Both contests will mark the Congress president's first attempt to enter Lok Sabha, something which many of her colleagues are wary of trying this year. At least five Congress leaders have refused to contest the coming elections but Sonia is going ahead full steam.

However, her puzzling attempt to keep the Bellary nomination secret appears to have done the damage as several Congress leaders sat in informal conclaves across the city today with almost all agreeing on one thing: the Congress has passed on the advantage to the BJP which will now hammer away at Sonia's insecurity during the poll campaign.

``The game is up. Forever now we will have to defend ourselves and try to explain why our leader hid from public view. It was almost like Quattrochi trying to evadethe CBI,'' snapped one irate CWC member as he emerged from one such informal meeting this afternoon at Teen Murti Marg.

It was the most acerbic remark on Sonia's efforts on Wednesday but many others were of similar views. The general impression was that the Congress emerged as a lonely party with no one to help, the BJP had eyes and ears everywhere. For example, added a Congress sitting MP, the BJP had people like Chandrababu Naidu keeping tabs on Sonia in Andhra Pradesh, where she stayed during the day, and Ramakrishna Hegde and J H Patel doing the job in Karnataka.

``Our president was trying to take on three administrations, in Delhi, AP and Karnataka, all where the BJP or its allies have control. Naturally, the BJP got wind of her plans and sent Sushma well in time to file her papers against Sonia,'' added a former Union Cabinet minister whose house was the venue for a ``damage assessment'' meeting this morning.

Three crucial aspects came out of Sonia's airborne adventure on Wednesday: First, that10, Janpath puts the Congress party on low priority (notice how the party was kept away from Sonia's plans which were privy only to members of her inner circle in 10, Janpath). Second, the BJP has allies in most parts of the country while the Congress is ploughing a lone furrow, which is why Vajpayee could relax while Naidu and Patel used the administrations in their control to lift the veil around Sonia.

Third, Sonia will have to do much more than her best if she has to better the BJP which was well prepared for any eventuality (Sushma was ready for Sonia at Bellary). The elaborate plans to send people up the wrong tree only succeeded in fooling Sonia's own partymen while the BJP was hardly taken in. The BJP's battle readiness, in fact, has sent many a Congressman into temporary depression as they now worry if the Congress high command has enough ammunition to take the ruling coalition on.

The Amethi announcement too may have come a day too late, as people were still too full of what Sonia did 24 hoursago. It is almost as an afterthought that the Congress president has chosen Uttar Pradesh too, felt several Congress workers in the party headquarters on Thursday. The mood was down and it appears that Sonia's cadres need a strong dose of conviction to pick themselves up.

Already, the party had to face an embarrassing moment today. Bhagwan Das Yadav, 44, a party worker from UP, tried to immolate himself at the AICC headquarters in protest against the bungling in Lok Sabha ticket distribution in the state. He sustained 35 per cent burns and was quickly carted away to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital by people around.

Yadav apparently is a follower of former state minister Praveen Singh Aron, and has been part of a dharna at 24, Akbar Road, after the Congress CEC denied Aron the ticket from Bareilly constituency which went instead to Islam Sabir, who joined the Congress after quitting the Samajwadi party only recently.

At the moment, Congressmen can only keep their fingers crossed that their leader keepsaway from future misadventures.