Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy R R Patil too were in the line of fire and Congress sources indicated that Deshmukh could well be on his way out. There was also speculation on the continuance of National Security Advisor M K Narayanan but sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said he would be staying on.

The appointment of Chidambaram, handpicked by Manmohan Singh in 2004 to lead the Finance team, signalled that the Home Minister and the PM would now work in tandem.

Patil offered his resignation towards the end of a three-hour long meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) late Saturday evening after he came under attack for repeatedly failing to prevent terror attacks which have claimed over 400 lives this year alone.

While Patil tried to explain what the government planned to do to tighten internal security, Congress president Sonia Gandhi set the tone for the meeting: “The time for intent is over. The nation is looking to us for decisive action and determined leadership.”

Defence Minister A K Antony also offered to quit if the party felt he was in any way responsible. “If there is any failure at the naval end, I am ready to quit,” Antony said. His party colleagues, however, rejected his offer. It was in sharp contrast to the “hushed” response Patil drew when he handed over his resignation letter to the PM at the meeting. He gave a copy of the letter to Gandhi. His resignation was accepted this morning.

Congress sources said Deshmukh, who has survived several attempts in the past to remove him as Maharashtra CM, also seemed to be in trouble. Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan and Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde have emerged as contenders for the top job in the state.

Sonia Gandhi had consistently stood by Patil all these months, allowing him to fend off criticism from friends and foes after every terror attack. But she sent out a clear signal in her opening remarks to the CWC.

“We can no longer sit back and let these attacks overwhelm us. Our response has to be effective and it has to be decisive... As the party that leads this coalition, our first task is to restore faith among the people. They must feel that they have a government that is taking all possible measures to give succor to those who need it and, more important, to ensure that there is no recurrence of such traumatic acts of terror... The time for intent is over. The nation is looking to us for decisive action and determined leadership,” she said.

AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi was in an equally combative mood. “The country is bigger than any election,” he said at the meeting. He wanted to know what the government was doing about Pakistan which had “slapped” the country. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had similar views, saying some strong message had to be sent to Pakistan.

Unlike past CWC meetings over terror which were were more like window-dressing exercises expressing concern and conveying condolences, this was different. A host of speakers, including Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram and Arjun Singh, demanded accountability.

The only different note was struck by Law Minister H R Bhardwaj who spoke of “collective responsibility”.

Shortly after Patil’s resignation, the Prime Minister had a surprise visitor: former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra. While this was not the first time that Mishra — he was the NDA Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and NSA — was meeting Singh, it gave rise to speculation whether he would be formally enlisted by the UPA government to help tackle the crisis.

Contacted by The Indian Express, Mishra said he had a “brief” meeting with the PM in the afternoon for about 20-30 minutes. He said he was surprised at the attention it had drawn since this was not the first time he had been called for consultations.

“I, of course, cannot talk about what we discussed. But it was about the current internal security situation,” Mishra said. Asked about the possibility of being given a formal assignment, he said: “I am now 80 years old. There is simply no question about my getting into something at this stage.”