Sonia Gandhi called meeting of senior Congress leaders on May 22 to muster strategies

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of senior Congress leaders on May 22, a day ahead of the couting of votes in the Lok Sabha elections.

All senior leaders, General Secretaries and 'in-charges' of the party have been called by Gandhi to prepare for the meeting of UPA allies and some other parties she has convened on May 23 in a bid to keep the BJP out of power if the ruling party is short of majority in a hung house.

The possibility of roping in new non-NDA parties into the JUPA coaltion to buttress the opposition numbers may be discussed in the May 22 meeting, sources said.

After the feedback session, tasks will be assigned to various leaders as per their expertise. A team of four leaders has already been put in place to reach out to potential allies and is working hard to make the alliance meeting successful.

Gandhi is understood to have invited leaders of secular parties including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, DMK chief MK Stalin, RJD and TMC for the meeting on a day the results will be out.

Everybody is working hard to sway fence sitters and the Congress was also seeing a change in the tone of leaders like Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. Rao has recently met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and DMK chief M K Stalin as part of his efforts to form a third front government.

There were reports that Rao and the chief of YSRCP Congress Jaganmohan Reddy have also been invited but there was no confirmation.

The sources said Congress was confident that BJP was not going to get majority and that was why it wanted to put in place a front to outsmart the rival BJP in case of a hung Parliament.

-ANI