New Delhi, Feb. 18: The Congress Working Committee will meet tomorrow to take stock of the developments in Uttar Pradesh in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s verdict disqualifying 13 breakaway BSP legislators.

The MLAs had voted for the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2003 by flouting the anti-defection law.

A broad view on what the Congress/Centre should do in the political flux — whose implications could go beyond Lucknow — might emerge after the meeting of the party’s highest decision-making body.

The meeting will be chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia’s political adviser Ahmed Patel and general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi. Finance minister P. Chidambaram will be a special invitee as he is not a CWC member.

“We will discuss current affairs. The focus will be on Uttar Pradesh and price rise,” said an office-bearer.

As the Samajwadi Party has warned that if President’s rule is imposed it would take the battle to Rashtrapati Bhavan and the streets, a section in the Congress feels that any move towards dismissing the Mulayam government should be discussed “threadbare”.

Party sources said they were afraid that Bihar and Jharkhand could be repeated and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam might refuse to sign the ordinance invoking Article 356.

The Congress stood virtually isolated in the UPA after key allies like the Left, DMK and the NCP spoke out against the dismissal. However, the DMK has now softened its stand.

“Even if we get it through Parliament with the help of the BJP and the RJD, it could be politically suicidal because Mulayam will go to town on how we dumped the Left for the communal BJP. That’s the last thing we want before the Uttar Pradesh polls,” a source said.

The Congress also factored in the “strong” possibility of the court overturning the order even after all other hurdles are crossed.

The Congress, the Left and Mulayam himself had egg on their faces in 1998, when the United Front regime dismissed Kalyan Singh’s BJP government before he took the floor test in the House. The Supreme Court then upheld the Allahabad High Court order restoring the government and allowing a trial of strength in the House.

It is believed that neither the Prime Minister nor law minister H.R. Bhardwaj favours another bout of “misadventurism”.

But Congress sources sounded worried that if polls were held under the Mulayam regime, things could get particularly “bad” for them. “Conditions are so bad that our workers can’t go around freely without getting thrashed by the Samajwadi members,” said a state functionary.

There was also an apprehension that Mulayam could “engineer” communal and caste violence and polarise his voters. “Gorakhpur and Mau were trailers,” a source said.