The gulf between the Congress and the Muslim League was wide apart and various attempts at its bridging had been failed. The Simla Conference was called on the basis of parity. It had been announced in the Wavel proposals that the Executive Council should be reconstituted to include leaders of Indian political parties in such a way that a balanced representation was given to the main communities, including an equal proportion of Muslims and caste Hindus, Jinnah took the stand that the Congress should include only Hindu members in its quota to the Executive Council. Maulana Abu-al-Kalam Azad challenged this stand and Lord Wavell also agreed that the position of the Muslim League was not reasonable.

When Lord Wavell announced the failure of the Simla Conference, he confessed that the responsibility for the failure was his, but the fact that the Jinnah's uncompromising attitude wrecked the Conference cannot be denied. Lord Wavell said; "He was so decided that I felt that it would be useless to continue the discussions".

It is also held that a minority in the Muslim League Working Committee was keen to come to an understanding with the Congress. V. P. Menon has written that "Hussain Imam, a member of the League Working Committee who attended the Conference as leader of the Muslim League Party in the Council of State, urged him to see Liaqat Ali Khan in order to find a way out of the impasse. He gave me the impression that the members of the Working Committee of the Muslim League were far from unanimous in rejecting the Viceroy's offer". But it must be remembered that the League members who differ from the Quaid-i-Azam were quite opposed to Khizar Hayat Khan or his nominee being included in the interim government, but were probably not averse to the idea of the Congress nominating a Muslim in their quota.