Congress President Sonia Gandhi's forthright remarks at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi on the Mumbai terror attacks appears to have forced Home Minister Shivraj Patil, a known loyalist of the Gandhi family, to resign.

"We can no longer sit back and let these attacks overwhelm us. Our response has to be effective and it has to be decisive," she said at the meeting last night.

Noting that the nation has gone through a "painful and agonising period", Gandhi said "the time for intent is over" and added that it was looking for a "determined leadership. We cannot afford to fail them."

At the meeting, convened to discuss the audacious terror strikes in the country's financial capital, she made it clear that the first task of the Congress which leads the UPA coalition was to "restore faith" among the people.

"They (people) must feel they have a government that is taking all possible measures to give succour to those who need it and, more important, to ensure that there is no recurrence of such traumatic acts of terror," the Congress chief said.

Gandhi's clear signal at the meeting attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and critical remarks by some leaders over the functioning of the Home Ministry, seems to have left Patil with no option but to put in his papers.

Patil drove to Singh's residence this morning and submitted his resignation owning moral responsibility for the Mumbai terror strikes.

Describing the attacks as an "assault on our nationhood", Gandhi said it was an attempt to destroy the fabric of our society and secular, democratic way of life.

Admitting that there were no easy answers, Gandhi said there was a need to plan for what can be done in the immediate future and work out long-term measures and reforms to strengthen and equip police and security forces to be better prepared for tackling such challenges.

"We need to look into the lacunae that allowed terrorists to cause such mayhem," she said, observing that the Mumbai attacks were qualitatively different from the rising tide of terrorism confronting the nation for sometime and called for immediate and firm action," she said.

Gandhi regretted that some of the political adversaries instead of rising above partisan considerations had sought to take advantage of the terrible suffering in the metropolis.

"We stand firm against any attempt to divide our people on the issue of terrorism," she said, stressing that "this is a time when all political parties should come together".

The Congress chief praised the security forces for rising to the occasion to meet an "unprecedented" challenge.

She said the party strongly supported Singh's address to the nation on Thursday in which he said the government would invoke the National Security Act and set up a Federal Investigation Agency and tighten the laws to deal with terrorism effectively.