Pawar meets Sonia

Pawar, who appeared to have given mixed signals with his partymen pushing his claims for prime ministership, drove to Gandhi's residence last night and held discussions for over 30 minutes, UPA sources said.

Apart from that the Congress president also spoke on on telephone to Lalu Prasad and Paswan as TV exit polls predicted a slight edge for the Congress-led UPA in the tight race for power at the Centre.

During the campaign, there was a lot of bad blood between leaders of Congress and RJD, LJP and SP, the troika forming the Fourth Front, but Gandhi scrupulously kept herself out of the war of words.

Highly placed sources said Gandhi was in regular touch with allies and the party would wait for small outfits to open their cards once the results are out.

Meanwhile, asked about possible tie-ups, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said that it only considered BJP and Shiv Sena as communal parties.

"Only BJP and Shiv Sena are communal. We won't have anything to do with these parties who spread hate and communalism," he told reporters here.

Asked whether Congress would seek an alliance with AIADMK, he merely said "AIADMK is not a communal party."

Gandhi also held consultations with senior leaders to discuss their strategy for possible post-poll alliances.

Gandhi is seeking the opinion of the state leaders and also the party general secretaries.