Sonia's A-Team: Pranab, PC out; Rahul, Antony in

In a major development in the Congress, the party has formed an informal committee comprising general secretary Rahul Gandhi, spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel and Defence Minister A K Antony. This committee will run the party while the Congress president will be away for her surgery in the United States. 

Interestingly, four big names from the party -- Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Telecom and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh are not in the committee. The fact that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was kept out of the core group has set political circles abuzz.

This indicates that Rahul Gandhi and Antony will emerge as the leaders who the Congress chief will trust with the party's future affairs. The Congress can expect a major shift in balance of power at the top.

The surprise announcement was necessary because of the ongoing monsoon session in the Lok Sabha.  

According to party sources, Sonia Gandhi has been keeping unwell for some time now.

Gandhi, who is scehduled to undergo a successful surgery in the US, will be away from the country for a couple of weeks.