Sources in the Petroleum Ministry said that six major oil companies were sent a request asking them to contribute to an educational trust around a month ago. This was followed by a feeler from the ministry, asking that they comply with this as it was the minister's constituency. While the figure varies from company to company, a total sum of between Rs 2 crore and Rs 3 crore is believed to be the corpus that was sought to be raised.

While Petroleum Ministry officials sought to play down the matter today, saying that they had no knowledge of the matter, the game was given away by the invitation cardsspecially printed for the occasion.

The cards, which bore the logos of the companies, were issued in the name of S Rammohan, in his capacity as regional co-ordinator of the oil industry for the southern region -- Rammohan is also the executive director of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

All chief executives of these companies such as BC Bora of ONGC, and MA Pathan of IOC were listed as speakers for the function. Other companies who have been listed in the card, and whose CEOs were to grace the function, are BPCL, IBP, HPCL, and Madras Refineries.

With the news leaking out that his rivals were certain to try and use this against Vazhapadi, the Petroleum Ministry went into over-drive asking the public sector oil companies to prevent the news from leaking out.

Through much of the day, offices of chief executives of ONGC, IOC, and BPCL played coy and refused to state if the chief executives were in fact accompanying the minister. When pressed, they said the programme had in fact been cancelled. No, theyhad got no written intimation, but word had generally been put out, they said. The petroleum secretary's office also pleaded ignorance about his programme and suggested that the minister's office be contacted.

While the ONGC spokesperson said that he was unaware that any such proposal had been mooted -- ONGC chief B.C. Bora refused to come on the line, despite several promises by his office that he would return the call -- the IOC spokesperson also echoed this line. This despite the fact that the invitation was sent out by a senior IOC official.

When contacted, Ramamurthy's office said that he would be out for a week and could not be reached. The Indian Express was told that there was no way to ensure that the minister got the message.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that the Petroleum Ministry and its minister have sought to get the public sector to fund their plans. When United Front's Petroleum Minister T.R. Baalu wanted his room to be refurbished and new air-conditioners to beordered, the tab was picked up by IOC. And while IOC thought it had done a good job of it, Baalu said he didn't like the colour of the walls. The paint was scraped off, and done again.