Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have discussed with senior party leaders the “secretiveness” adopted by prime minister Manmohan Singh about his offer to face the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that came as a big surprise to her at the plenary session here on Monday.

No such offer was mentioned in the text of the address he had sent in advance to the party managers to print its copies for distribution at the plenary. Nor did he discuss his move with anybody, the party sources said.

The printed copies of his speech distributed to the Media and the delegates as such do not carry his remarks that he is prepared to appear before the PAC and would write to its chairman to establish his bonafide that he has nothing to hide in the 2G scam.

The senior party leaders felt Manmohan Singh is badly hurt from the stigma of corruption stuck on him because of the Congress deciding not to accept the JPC demand and hence he took the personal decision to throw himself before the PAC to retrieve the damaged reputation of honesty and integrity, sources said.

Apparently he did not regale with Sonia Gandhi saying "the party stands solidly with him" to dispel despondency in the party amid whispers of need for a "strong leadership" in the government as he has now dared the opposition to take on them on their terms to prove he is not guilty, the sources said.