Sonia Gandhi came under renewed pressure Wednesday to reconsider her decision not to take up primeministership with all members of the Congress Working Committee, MPs and party office bearers tendering their resignation.

Top leaders were meeting Sonia Gandhi early afternoon to persuade her to change her mind, according to a senior Congress official.

All members of India's Congress Working Committee and office-bearers of All India Congress Committee (AICC) resigned Tuesday night in protest against party President Sonia Gandhi's decision not to accept prime ministership, said Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni at a press conference Wednesday morning.

Soni said a delegation of senior leaders including Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and Arjun Singh would be meeting Gandhi early in the afternoon to put as much pressure as possible to make her withdraw her decision.

"We want to tell her that her decision was not acceptable and she should take it back," Soni told reporters.

Tuesday night, Sonia Gandhi told the Congress Parliamentary Party that she decided to humbly decline the prime minister's job."I request you to accept my decision and to recognize that I will not reverse it," she said.

Even as Gandhi herself met leaders of the supporting parties and reportedly informed them that she favored Manmohan Singh for the top job, pressure within the party mounted on her to withdraw her surprise decision.

There has been no indication so far that Sonia is having secondthoughts but her senior party colleagues including Manmohan Singh and other senior members would press her to take back the decisionat the meeting.

Soni told reporters on Wednesday that all the newly elected party MPs will be carrying their resignation letters to give them to Gandhi when they are expected to meet her in the evening.

The Congress party also set in motion the process of collectingfresh letters of support from the allies in support of the Congress-led government that may be headed by Manmohan Singh. Some allied parties have handed over their letters.

Post-poll ally Samajwadi Party said the leadership of Congress Party was its internal matter and his party would support the new government but not join it.

Members of the outgoing government, who criticized Sonia's Italian origin and claimed to boycott the swear-in ceremony of Sonia Gandhi, have expressed satisfaction at her decision to decline the post of prime minister.

Stock markets, which fell dramatically on news of the surprise electoral defeat of the pro-market BJP party, rallied strongly on Tuesday as news of Gandhi's rejection of the prime ministership spread.