Following the DMK and INLD's support to the BJP, Sonia ordered Arjun Singh to announce the Congress would stake claim to forming an alternative government should the BJP government fall apparently to keep the anti-BJP forces united. For good measure Singh added Sonia would be the Congress' prime ministerial nominee, another move aimed at keeping the flock together.

Singh also read out from page 17 of the Congress' Pachmarhi Declaration which said the party was not against the concept of coalition governments in toto and that an agreed common programme would be the basis of such an arrangement if it was so necessary. This too was a move to assuage hurt feelings after Sonia stayed cold tothe idea of a coalition government in her meeting with the ADMK chief on Thursday.

On her part, Jayalalitha met CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Samata Party MP Kalpnath Rai, Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi and Janata Dal leader S R Bommai among others to keep the fire going. It is Jayalalitha who stands to lose the most if the Vajpayee government survives, having made enemies of both the BJP and the DMK.

With the DMK joining hands with the BJP, the future could be troublesome for Jayalalitha and this seemed to spur her on. After her meeting with Bardhan, she made a half-offer to replace the DMK in the United Front saying she ``would love to be part of the Third Front'' but Bardhan didn't bite. ``That is her view. Not mine,'' he told journalists.

Arjun Singh too did his bit. Stressing that the government would fail to prove its majority, he said ``an artificial situation seems to have been created by the support extended by the DMK and the INLD.''

``All the fears being voiced regarding success ofthe effort of the Opposition are misplaced and misconceived,'' he added.

But for a long while, negative news forced Sonia and Jayalalitha to work overtime. Sonia met Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) head G K Moopanar for about 45 minutes in the evening and summoned TNCC office-bearers including its head T K Ramamurthy in the night to explain the AICC's pro-ADMK tilt of recent days.

Sources said Sonia used her old ties with Moopanar to impress that the TMC must vote against the government's motion of confidence and thus part ways with the DMK if need be. Indications were that the TMC's top leadership was to meet late in the night to take a final decision on this. Sonia used all her charm and if it works, the Congress gains three more votes.

The 11 votes which the BJP gained, by way of the DMK, the INLD and the RJP, seemed to undo the gains of the last few days in the Congress-ADMK camp and Jayalalitha quickly ordered Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy to work on the BSP. The BSP has five MPs, enough tonullify the INLD's walking over to the BJP.

Swamy was busy talking to BSP general secretary Mayawati to ``forget'' the anger against the Congress -- which is seen as anti-Dalit after the Jehanabad massacres of Dalits despite which Sonia backed Laloo -- and defeat the BJP's motion of confidence.

Some good news seemed to be heading the Congress' way from Kalpnath Rai's actions. The Samata Party MP was his usual smug self, ignoring the showcause notice for anti-party activities and promising to bring three more colleagues to the anti-BJP camp by splitting the Samata Party. However, Jayalalitha barely gave him three minutes and Rai was soon out of hotel Maurya Sheraton.

But it was Arjun Singh's statements today which were the main Congress ploy. He said an alternative government would be in place minutes after the Vajpayee government fell and that the Congress was willing to head a coalition arrangement. In a written statement, he claimed the BJP's coalition was a ``fraud on the people of India.'' He saidthe agenda for national governance was not the plank on which the BJP fought the 1998 elections.

``It is time that in the name of god, who also has been unabashedly betrayed by them (the government), and in the name of the country, which has been brought to the crossroads, the Lok Sabha consigns this communal and corrupt cabal, which goes by the name of BJP coalition, to the dustbin of history,'' Singh said.