New Delhi

May 8, 2004

HOW TO COMPENSATE LOSS OF TDP AND AIADMK MP'S? FRIENDS OF PRIME MINISTER SET THE 'BACKROOM' TACTICS IN MOTION

VICE PRESIDENT SHEKHAWAT MEETS SHARAD PAWAR

Vice President B S Shekhawat on Saturday quietly spent thirty minutes with Sharad Pawar the leader of Nationalist Congress Party in New Delhi.

Pawar returned from Australia after spending five days holidays with his family. Authorative sources told this correspondent that Shekhawat phoned Pawar in Australia and sought a meeting in Delhi on Saturday.

Pawar arrived in Delhi on Friday night and Saturday early morning. had a thirty minutes meeting with the Vice President and drove to airport to get Mumbai flight from Delhi.

This meeting has set the ball rolling in establishing high level contacts in Opposition camps, on behalf of the Prime Minister.
Background politicking tricks have been set in motion by senior leaders of BJP. A Governor of the largest state invited the Chief Minister on Friday night and had 'put through a formula' in the event of NDA getting 240 or minus 240.

Friends of Prime Minister have begun to take '25-30' votes from their sources, if the NDA ran short of majority.

At a high level meeting held at 6 Maulana Azad Road the official residence of Vice President, it was decided that 'informal consultations have to be established with 25-30 MPs. This is a number worked out by friends of Prime Minister, to compensate the possible loss from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Telugu Desam had 29 and AIADMK had 12 in the
dissolved Lok Sabha. This 40 votes were very handy for NDA. If TDP gets 8-10 and AIADMK also goes down say 5-8 , the friends of Prime Minister have been busy in garnering the 25 votes - a probability.

Friends of Prime Minister has taken a list of 75 MPs individually and wanting to establish contacts before the poll results are announced.

Shekhawat has a stature in north Indian politics. He would just phone up to any senior leader and drive down to the bungalow 'by seeking a cup of tea from the guest'

The scouting by Shekhawat is primarily to tell the opposition that NDA is to stay in power, if they have secured 250+

Friends of Prime Minister have also established quietly contacts with DMK Chief Karunanidhi through confidants. This might most probably similar to that of setting the piegons, as was done with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

At one level friends of Prime Minister have asked George Fernandes to airdash to Lucknow on Tuesday May 11, to meet Mulayam Singh Yadav. Quietly George Fernandes have been talking to 'two independent sources, who might get a number of 25.

Strategicians of BJP have worked out a package to spread themselves amongst their old political contacts, basically to sow a seed of suspicion and later neutralise the possible damages. Ajit Singh is another soft target. Similarly the north eastern states representatives. They have no high profile political stakes. They could well be offered a berth in the
cabinet.