MUMBAI, Dec 4: With the Lok Sabha being dissolved and the threat of a mid-term poll looming large, all the main political parties in the State went into the emergency mode today. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have both called emergency meetings on Friday to discuss the fallout of the dissolution while Shiv Sena leaders are awaiting the return of their supremo Bal Thackeray from Nashik.

While they are all cocksure on the surface, secretly a fair amount of uncertainty seems to prevail in both camps. And their early claims are near identical. Congress spokesperson Vasant Chavan says, ``This time round we will get more than the Sena-BJP put together.''

Which means out of a total of 48 seats, the Congress must set itself a target of a minimum of 30 seats if this were to come true -- a tall claim considering that at the moment it has only 15 sitting MPs. The Sena has an equal number, while the BJP has 18.

The president of the Bombay unit of the BJP, Kirit Somaiyya, is equally certain that between them the two allies will get at least 40 seats. ``We could take anything between 40 and 48 seats, I can tell you for sure,'' Somaiyya told The Indian Express.

Despite such outward confidence, doubts are beginning to creep in among the two allies for the bottomline is that they have not been getting along too well of late and their political views appear to be diverging.

Thackeray has consciously pushed the Sena into the sarva dharma sambhava mould over the past year. According to informed sources in the party, Thackeray wishes to be on the winning side in the next Lok Sabha. So the Sena is now hedging its bets by running with the hares and hunting with the hounds so far as the anti-minority rhetoric is concerned.

No one is yet clear as to how he is to pull it off except that he seems to be drawing apart at the grass-roots level vis-a-vis the BJP. So the latter is now planning on honing its skill at turning the tables on its detractors by taking up the cudgels against what Somaiyya calls ``musical chairs being played in this country at the drop of a hat''. In the absence of any emotional issues, the BJP hopes that the accent in the impending election would be on the current economic recession, which Somaiyya says is a result of the political instability in the country. He is, however, quick to deny that the anti-incumbency factor could work against the Sena-BJP in Maharashtra. ``No absolutely not. This election will be fought on national concerns. Local issues will not matter,'' he says.

The Congress does not think so. In fact, by all accounts, the failures of the Sena-BJP Government in the last three years is going to be their biggest plank at the elections. Leaders of the party are meeting tomorrow to prepare a panchanama against the Sena-BJP. This was to be their `black paper' against the Government to be released during their massive morcha in Nagpur on December 15. Now it is likely to turn into their manifesto.

Says Madhukarrao Pichad, leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, ``I take no bets about the figures. But I can tell you we will certainly improve upon our last performance. We are already prepared: Our first round of campaigning before this turmoil began has given us encouraging reports.''

Moreover, the Congress seems to feel less isolated this time round. While formal talks have not been opened as yet, Chavan identifies the Dalit groupings and Mulayam Singh as possible allies. ``It will be a combine versus a combine in Maharashtra (Hindutva parties ranged against `secular forces'). And we are prepared to pay the price to make this possible,'' he adds.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.