New Delhi, Oct. 25: When Rahul Gandhi turns up at Talkatora Stadium next month, it will be his first appearance at a big party forum since his appointment as general secretary.

But his November 17 projection before a gathering of nearly 2,000 at the All India Congress Committee’s annual session will be under the shadow of the nuclear standoff and the churning in the Left-UNPA camps.

Congress sources said they were aware of the circumstances but, for the record, sounded nonchalant.

Spokesperson Mohan Prakash questioned the UNPA’s “secular” credentials and spoke of the “practical” alliance that Mulayam Singh Yadav and N. Chandrababu Naidu have had with the BJP in the past.

“They had helped the BJP to form a government and the BJP helped the formation of their governments,” he said and challenged the UNPA to clearly say if it will be part of a BJP-led regime or one headed by the Congress so that “people were not fooled”.

Prakash, however, refused to utter a word about the Left.

Party sources said the Congress’s fear was the Left-UNPA will start cornering the Centre on domestic issues and not so much on the nuclear deal with America. They said they had taken note of CPI leader A.B. Bardhan’s statement on how the Left-UNPA would come on the “same platform” to “create an alternative (to the Congress and the BJP) to raise people’s issues”.

The party’s reading, the sources added, was the duo would try and embarrass the government on the deal through a coordinated parliamentary strategy. But outside, they would raise issues like food imports, mounting food bills, the employment guarantee scheme and tribal rights — which all have a far greater potential to create an “anti-incumbency” mood against the government.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of senior government officials tomorrow to see how the ruling UPA’s flagship schemes could be speeded up.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will be among those who would attend the meeting.

For the AICC session, which would see ritualistic speeches by the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi, the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India have been told to mobilise their ranks for Rahul’s big-bang debut on the party stage.

As a general secretary, there is no slot for a Rahul speech. But in vintage Congress style, the youth activists would leave him and the managers with no choice with slogans like “Rahul Gandhi, sangharsh karo”.

Sources said the “mood and tone” of the session would depend largely on the outcome of the UPA-Left nuclear panel meeting the day before.

The meeting is expected to arrive at some kind of a conclusion on the panel’s findings but given the pro-deal articulations by the Prime Minister and the Congress over the past few days, Left and Congress sources wondered how a consensus would be evolved.