Only the morrow will testify to the success, or failure, of Sonia Gandhi’s bid to promote a degree of commonality among those political parties not enamoured with Modi sarkar’s style of functioning.

The build-up for Wednesday’s meeting, to be followed by a joint press conference, has been rather low-key. At the time of writing only Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamul have confirmed participation ~ though “invitations” were also sent to the Left parties, JD (U), JD (S), RJD and NCP.

Although not in the direct “line of fire”, the Congress would appear to have opted against seeking to rope in the Samajwadi Party: Ghulam Nabi Azad’s insistence that the Congress would not enter into an alliance for the UP poll is a pointer to Sonia having only a limited objective ~ to try and squeeze every drop of ill-will the BJP has created for itself by making such a mess of its demonetisation endeavour.

In reality, the yardstick to be applied for Tuesday’s essay is not whether a common platform can be erected but whether it will demolish the barrier of mistrust that the Congress has erected around itself courtesy Rahul Gandhi’s leading a singleparty delegation that met the Prime Miniser to highlight the distress in the farm sector. To put it bluntly, the Congress president is attempting to contain the damage caused by her vice-president and heir-apparent.

His act of “ditching” other Opposition parties has provoked immediate retribution: the Congress was left virtually forlorn when it called on the President to protest skewed implementation of demonetisation.

Damage containment is also necessitated by Rahul’s promised temblor not causing more than ripple, and making something of a laughing-stock of himself when accusing Mr Narendra Modi of personal corruption.

The damage was internal too: the outdated “documents” on which Rahul had based his attempted assault had also mentioned former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit who the Congress is projecting as its leader in the UP election.

Has Rahul already written off his party’s chances in UP, sacrificing Sheila even before the ballots are cast?

There are rumblings within the party too. “Mummy” appears to deem it vital she salvages the fortunes of her politically immature beta, particularly since Priyanka is clearly wary of performing another “sister act”.

Hence Sonia’s deciding to put aside her recent indifferent health and trying to restore the status of the Congress in the Opposition’s ranks. What really intrigues is the fact that the more capable leaders within the party have resigned themselves to “son-worship”.

Apart from P Chidambaram using his experience as finance minister to put the demonetisation-exercise through the shredder, most others with potential have opted for the sidelines. Chamchagiri remains a Congress super-specialty.