Singh, a veteran Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, met senior RJP leaders over lunch at the VVIP guest house in Gandhinagar today, and held prolonged parleys with former chief minister, Shankarsinh Vaghela, and party president Madhusudan Mistry.

Vaghela had also invited senior Congress leaders Amarsinh Chaudhary and Prabodh Raval to the lunch, but they are attending the AICC session in New Delhi. Singh, believed to be closer to Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, at whose instance he successfully contested the Sherdol Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh recently, is keen that the Congress and RJP join hands to counter the BJP in Gujarat.

His meeting with the RJP leaders assumes great political significance in view of the fact he is conversant with the Gujarat politics and his anti-BJPstance he had shown during his two-year tenure as the Governor.

``The BJP's influence is on the wane as had been amply established by the party's total rout in the just concluded Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And, if the Opposition parties, mainly the Congress and the RJP, join hands in Gujarat, the BJP may meet the same fate in case the Lok Sabha snap polls take place in the months to come,'' Singh told The Indian Express.

After lunch, Singh was closeted with Atmaram Patel for a few minutes and had reportedly persuaded the veteran co-operative leader to either join the Congress or return to the RJP in the ``larger interests of Gujarat and to effectively counter the BJP in the State''.

The former revenue minister, however, said that he was undecided whether to cross over to the Congress or rejoin Vaghela's RJP. When asked, Vaghela said ``efforts are on to persuade Atmaram kaka to rejoin our party, and I am hopeful that the veteran leader will do so''.

He saidhe or his party leaders were not averse to coming closer to the Congress to take on ``our common enemy (BJP) in case mid-term polls take place in the State''. The outcome of the Bharuch by-poll should prove an eye-opener for both Congress and RJP, and there was nothing wrong if the two jointly contested the two forthcoming Assembly by-elections in Saurashtra by sharing the seats. The seats have fallen vacant following the death of BJP ministers Savji Korat and Maganbhai Kasundra.