Why were many Congress leaders reluctant to join Mahatma Gandhi in Non-cooperation Movement?

(i) Many Congress leaders were reluctant to boycott the council elections scheduled for November 1920, and they feared that the movement might lead to popular violence.

(ii) In the months between September and December there was an intense tussle within the Congress. For a while there seemed no meeting point between the supporters and the opponents of the movement.

(iii) Finally, at the Congress Session at Nagpur in Dec. 1920, a compromise was worked out and the Non-cooperation programme was adopted.