New Delhi, Sept. 20: The Congress is suddenly jittery at the prospect of early elections.

The party feels the more the BJP and the Sangh rachet up the Ram setu and Ram controversies, the worse it is for the party in the very states where it had looked to making fresh gains.

The Congress has not yet been able to decide to what extent it should distance itself from the DMK, whose chief M. Karunanidhi has gone ballistic over Ram.

“There’s a saying that a man is known by the company he keeps,” said a senior leader. “What should we be known as after consorting with the DMK? As Ram-baiters?”

The party has still not mounted a structured campaign to rebut the National Democratic Alliance’s claim that it had nothing to do with the Ram setu project when the fact is the Vajpayee government okayed it.

Sources said the overwhelming view at a core committee meeting last week was that an early-poll scenario should be “coolly and objectively” assessed.

The leaders who were present, including Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, also agreed that it was “untenable” to put up with the Left’s attacks on the nuclear deal, especially when the Prime Minister was being targeted.

One suggestion was the Congress should look at the numbers in the Lok Sabha and see what could happen if it was forced to seek a trust vote in the winter session. The idea was to see if there was a way in which the UPA could make up for the loss of the Left’s 60 MPs if push came to shove. However, the concept has yet to seriously jell with party strategists.

The Congress’s biggest fear is that as it counts on BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh to cut the losses it is expected to incur in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, would the Ram setu become the BJP’s bridge for a revival?

The Madhya Pradesh government has thought up a “Rampath” scheme to link places in the state Ram is said to have travelled through and project it as “Ram circuit”.

“Our workers feel that just withdrawing the affidavit is not enough. It’s like bandaging a deep wound without stopping the blood flow. They say some surgery or a strong dose of antibiotics is required,” said a Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, giving an idea of the “ground sentiments”.

Senior leader Janardhan Dwivedi indicated the party line on Karunanidhi’s remarks. “Nobody should say anything to hurt the sentiments of any section of society. The Congress respects all religions,” he said.

The Congress believes that even the “atheist” Left has acquitted itself more reasonably than the DMK on religion.

“In principle, Marxists are atheists. But Jyoti Basu, A.K. Gopalan and B.T. Ranadive never said such things about our gods,” said a source.