What transpired in the meeting was not immediately known but the visit assumes significance given Jayalalitha's strident posture against the government in general, and Defence Minister George Fernandes in particular, at yesterday's coordination committee meeting.

Bhattacharya had played a key role in March 1998 in sorting out problems between Jayalalitha and the Government. Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan and George Fernandes were the other trouble-shooters. However, Bhattacharya maintained his rapport with Jaya.

At the coordination committee meeting, the AIADMK chief had lashed out at the government on the Vishnu Bhagwat issue and demanded the dismissal of Defence Minister Fernandes.

Sources say that Jayalalitha pointed out that if S Muthaiah was made to resign from the Union Government merelybecause there was a charge against him for appropriating assets to the tune of Rs 40 lakh, the sacked Chief of Naval Staff had levelled charges of corruption involving an amount of Rs 1,000 crore. Jayalalitha said it was strange that there had been no response to these charges for a long time and they were dismissed on the ground that they are being levelled by a sacked Admiral who was ``innocent.''

When Fernandes pointed out that Bhagwat was sacked for defying the civilian authority of the minister, Jayalalitha asked why no action was taken against two secretaries of the Union government for defying their ministers.

Prime Minister Vajpayee, sensing the trouble ahead, intervened to say that he was not aware of such defiance. Jayalalitha said that the two ministers of the AIADMK had pointed it out to the Principal Secretary Brijesh Mishra but no action had been taken.

Later, when asked by The Indian Express, Union Minister of Law, Justice & Company Affairs, M Thambidurai, refused to say if hehad complained about his secretary. Thambidurai, who is also a member of the coordination committee, said: ``I had gone out of the meeting for a while. I would't know if Madam said anything of the kind.''

Jayalalitha said that she had met members of the United Services Institute in the morning and was shocked to learn that they had not taken kindly to Bhagwat's sacking. They had told her that the forces were completely demoralised by the action.

The USI comprises retired top personnel of the three forces and is at present headed by Gen. Satish Nambiar. President K.R. Narayanan is the patron of the USI while three service chiefs are deputy patrons.

When Vaiko of the MDMK tried to come to the defence of Fernandes, Jayalalitha is reported to have retorted that their common links with the LTTE were too well known. It was agreed that Fernandes would explain the position on the issue to her, in the presence of the Prime Minister, on Monday.

Jayalalitha is slated to meet Vajpayee over lunch and GeorgeFernandes would be meeting her at the Prime Minister's house. Fernandes could not be reached for comments as he was out of town.