The 11-member committee, constituted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is expected in Ahmedabad on November 19. The committee will listen to MLAs, defeated candidates, party office-bearers, heads of various party wings, and district presidents. During its one-day programme, the committee will also hear party representatives from Maharashtra and Goa as well as the Union Territories of Diu, Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The committee comprises A K Antony, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, P M Sayeed, Prithviraj Chauhan, Santosh Chowdhury, Motilal Vora, K A Sangatam, Nirmal Khatri, K P Singh Deo and Jagdish Tytler.

Party circles are agog with speculation that the high command mighthave BJP bete noire Shankersinh Vaghela head the party in the state, should it effect a change in leadership.

Meanwhile, Vaghela himself, in an informal talk with The Indian Express, stated, ``I am not in the Congress to hold plum posts, for I have held key political posts in the past; but if the high command thinks I am the right man to deliver the goods I will not refuse it.''

He says his aim is only to marginalise the BJP in Gujarat and he will continue these efforts ``as a sincere Congress soldier''. ``Whatever the party seniors say, I am no longer an RJP man and I have never asked for anything on that basis or even otherwise,'' he said.

Asked about the comments of C D Patel and others that he had no electoral impact beyond Kapadwanj, where he won, he said, ``I don't want to enter into any debate about my impact. Such statements are not in good taste, I have nothing to say to that.''

In reply to whether he had made any representation to the high command about the statements by Patel and CLPleader Amarsinh Chaudhary, Vaghela said, ``They are senior leaders, I am an ordinary MP." "I have not made any complaints, I am not interested either,'' he added. He says he is as much a Congressman as C D Patel and Amarsinh Chaudhary.

While discontent brews in the party against Patel and Chaudhary for their ``inability'' to provide the right impetus to the party in a favourable electoral atmosphere, the four-member state-level committee examining the poll reverses is back from Chhotaudepur and Dahod with reports that the BJP misused the official machinery.

The committee has put the entire blame for the loss of these seats on the BJP while the party ranks, since the results were announced, have cried themselves hoarse about inadequate support from the leadership.

Political observers believe this is a move to pre-empt a spate of adverse representations before the Antony Committee; the leadership could always cite the findings of the state-level committee and put the blame on the BJP's misuse of officialmachinery for the party's reverses in its traditional strongholds. The committee members, except Dattaji Chirandas, are known supporters of C D Patel. Apart from Dattaji, the others in the committee are Hasmukh Patel, Arvind Sanghvi and Balubhai Patel.

The committee has claimed that in Chhotaudepur and Dahod constituencies, the BJP Government had posted favourable police and other officials ahead of the elections and distributed liquor in tribal areas to facilitate booth capturing and bogus voting.