Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images] on Monday thanked the media persons of the national press by asking party spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi to host a grant lunch for them at the convention hall of Ashok Hotel in New Delhi [Images].

Though Dwivedi tried his best to stop the media persons from asking questions to Sonia Gandhi, there were times when Sonia herself shared the views.

"We had the figure of 200 plus in our minds," she said .

Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee [Images] could not attend the ceremony, as they were busy in a series of meetings. Pranab was with the leading bankers on Monday to elicit their perspectives to be incorporated in the forthcoming union budget, which would be presented on July 3.

Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi [Images] would leave for Rai Bareily on Thursday, to join her son Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi [Images], presently in Amethi nursing his constituency.