Though the magic figure is 271 in a House of 542 (excluding the Speaker who normally does not vote, except in case of a tie), the fate of the government would depend on those present and voting in the Lok Sabha tomorrow. Until the time of going to the press, the BJP is 3 short of a clear majority.

If Gopinath Munde, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra who is a key member of BJP's operation salvage team is to be believed, not more than 530 MPs would be present in the House. The feather, if achieved, would bring down the magic figure to 265 for survival of the government.

The BJP has already obtained the support of 268 MPs without the 18 MPs of Jayalalitha and unless there are desertions from the Samata Party, Biju Janata Dal, National Conference, Akali Dal, Lok Shakti and even Trinamool Congress, it is set tosurvive.

Munde and others in the BJP are banking on abstentions in the House due to political and other kinds of sickness of the MPs. His brother-in-law and Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan had already gone on record earlier that the fate of the government would be decided by those ``present and voting'' in the House.

Malti Devi, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, is in USA undergoing cancer treatment and cannot make it. Similarly, Kalyan Singh, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has reinstated a suspended IAS officer yesterday. The officer is husband of Omvati, a Samajwadi Party MP. Kalyan Singh is reported to have conveyed to the party high command that they need not depend on the Bahujan Samaj Party's 5 MPs as he would get two more non-BJP MPs to abstain from the House.

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, a former Rajasthan Chief Minister, succeeded in his attempts to win over Anand Mohan Singh (RJP) to the party's fold from the Congress side.

Even former prime minister Chandra Shekhar is opposed toSonia Gandhi taking over the reins of the country though he is on record to say that he would vote against the BJP. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh is also strongly opposed to Sonia Gandhi and seen together with Shekhawat. They had lunch together with some of the BJP leaders today.

Right now efforts are on to persuade Bhim Singh Dahal of the Sikkim Democratic Front and Thakur Chhota Singh of Manipur to abstain if they cannot support the BJP.

Informed sources say that both camps have assured the abstaining MP to provide him with a room in a government hospital with certified ECG and blood pressure reports so that he cannot be disqualified for violating the whip of the party.

P Chidambaram of the Tamil Maanila Congress deferred his decision to speak as the party is ``holding its meeting to take a decision'' on the motion tonight. Though the party was almost set to abstain, G K Moopanar's statement that if Sonia becomes the prime minister, his party would vote for the Congress has causeduncertainty.

All eyes are now set on the 6-member Janata Dal which is going to meet tonight to take a final decision on supporting the Congress. While 4 MPs led by H D Deve Gowda want to oppose the motion, Ram Vilas Paswan and Inder Kumar Gujral are for the Vajpayee government. If the Congress is working to enlist JD's support, the BJP poachers want that the party should not issue a whip.

So far, the BJP poachers have scored over their rivals. The BJP's principal poacher Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal along with Madanlal Khurana won back 4-member Indian National Lok Dal. When Badal wanted Om Prakash Chautala to meet the prime minister, the INLD leader declined saying, ``I have full faith in you. The promises would be fulfilled.'' The support of the 6 DMK MPs had already been enlisted by the Union Home Minister, L K Advani, whose 2-member high-powered team had given a clean chit to the Karunanidhi Government last year when it had visited for on on-the-spot assessment of the law and ordersituation there.

Rajnath Singh, president of the UP unit of the BJP, had a long talk with Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party. What transpired between them is not known. But Singh must be offering her an alternative formula for enlisting her support.

Even at this late stage, Suresh Kalmadi, a Rajya Sabha MP was deputed by the BJP to meet Jayalalitha to prevail upon her not to oppose the government. Though Kalmadi declined to say what was the purpose of his meeting with Jaya.

In order to counter BJP's operation, the Congress team has swung into action rather late. There may be war team in the party but lack of coordination was visible as leaders refuse to report to Arjun Singh who they say has been throwing his weight around.

They are left with one night to show results or take Sonia Gandhi and Jayalalitha to the garden path at least in this round. They hope that Kalpnath Rai would be able to split Samata Party with 4 MPs. Strangely, Laloo Prasad Yadav is not lending his helping hand to split theSamata.

But Deve Gowda hopes to split the 3-member Lok Shakti. J B Patnaik is reaching Delhi tonight. Whether he has been entrusted with the task of splitting Biju Janata Dal or not could be anybody's guess as his successor Giridhar Gamang is unable to do anything beyond casting his own vote.