New Delhi, Jan. 8: The core group of the Congress met at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence this evening to take stock of law and order in Assam and Uttar Pradesh.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil and A.K. Antony attended the meeting.

A source said the Prime Minister and the Congress president were “extremely concerned” about the developments in Assam.

Sources said the killings could have ramifications outside the state. Representatives of Bihar in the Union cabinet, mainly Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, conveyed their concerns and fears of a similar anti-migrant backlash in the other northeastern states as well. Paswan and BJP president Rajnath Singh will visit Assam tomorrow to meet the victims’ families.

The meeting also took note of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s statement, questioning the reasons behind the “selective killings” and demanding more security for people from Bihar staying in Assam.

Sonia had summoned Patil yesterday for a briefing on the violence and later discussed the situation with Mukherjee.

This morning, Digvijay Singh, the Congress general secretary in charge of Assam, briefed her on the inputs he got from the state government and the APCC. He told the media later that Sonia would stick to her plan of flagging off the National Games, which “Ulfa has opposed from the beginning”, in Guwahati on February 9.

Sonia is also expected to preside over a meeting of the social welfare boards of the northeastern states and NGOs in Guwahati during her visit.

Besides, Sonia is scheduled to visit Assam in March or April to address two sets of party workers’ meetings, one in Barpeta or Dhubri in the central region, and the other in Dibrugarh or Tinsukia in Upper Assam.

Reacting to the BJP’s allegations that the killings in Assam were a “direct result of the Congress’s flirtation” with the Ulfa during the last Assembly elections, Digvijay Singh denied that his party or the Assam government ever had a pact, covert or direct, with the organisation. “It is very unfortunate that Ulfa has targeted Bihar labourers. It is a great setback to the peace process and the development process because neither can take place in an environment of violence, threats and killings,” he said.

He added that the Ulfa has struck because “their clout is diminishing and they want to prove that they still exist”.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley had earlier asked: “We want to know what the UPA’s recipe for Assam is. Does it involve negotiations with the militants, a ceasefire or stringent action? What does the PM have in mind?”