The Congress's draft political resolution has made a few significant announcements regarding its policy on the minorities, coalition management and on the coming state elections.

The political resolution has reiterated its commitment to uphold the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University, and assures the minorities that all appropriate steps will be taken to ensure this.

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The Congress has proposed that it is conscious 'that in some states its main political opponents are parties that are supporting it at the Centre. As the Congress president has said, there is no contradiction. National challenges demand co-operation and co-ordination among secular parties. But in states like Kerala [Images], West Bengal and Tripura, there is no question of understanding or compromise. The Congress will aggressively confront and fight the Left in these three states. In these states the Congress welcomes an alliance with any party that has no truck, direct or indirect, with the BJP.'

It also means that the Congress will not be a part of Mahajot, a lose alliance proposed by the Trinamul Congress against the ruling Left parties in West Bengal.

While claiming that the Congress 'remains the only party that can claim a truly all-India vision and all India base,' the resolution avoided speaking about any possibility of single-party rule and declared that it realizes the political reality that a coalition of political forces and opinions are inevitable.

But the Congress has also sent a message that it alone should not be blamed for problems in running coalitions. The resolution says, 'The Congress would like to put on record its firm belief that a coalition means that all parties in partnership follow a basic discipline, especially in public. In their anxiety to protect their own individual party line, if any coalition partner crosses or is seen to be crossing the limits of constructive criticism then that coalition is weakened and public credibility eroded.'

The stern advice bordering on a threat to its coalition partners doesn't end here; the resolution also says, 'There is a thing called collective responsibility in a coalition that must be adhered to at all times.'

To its own party men, the Congress suggests, 'Even in a coalition, political parties do not have to give up the expectation or aspiration of securing larger political space for themselves.'

In the draft political resolution brought before the AICC, which had been converted into a Subjects Committee, the party has stuck to its old policies, old views and old stands.