What appears to be emerging a day after the fall of the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government is a definite move by dissidents to take the opportunity to help themselves to a better deal, in the event of an alternate government taking shape. At the same time, the BJP and its coalition partners are engaged in desperate efforts to keep their flock together.

In an attempt to send the right signals to the coalition partners, including his own faction-ridden Samata party, Defence Minister George Fernandes today said that the President should ask the BJP-led coalition to continue as the Opposition cannot muster the required majority.

Fernandes asserted that while the Vajpayee Government had the strength of 269 members in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition, wishing to form analternate government, did not have more than 255 members in its kitty. He claimed that the reduced strength was because former prime minister Chandrashekhar, the Janata Dal, the RSP and the Forward Bloc have made clear that they are not going to support a Congress-led Government.

Notwithstanding Fernandes's assertions, Samata party dissidents, who had been biding their time as long as the Government was in power, have now ``decided'' to take the plunge. ``It was okay as long as we were in power, but with the Government gone, new opportunities have sprung up and we are going to realign ourselves, depending on who forms the Government,'' said a dissident Samata party leader.

Dissident MPs from the Samata Party, as well as the other key coalition partner Biju Janata Dal (BJD), are quite amenable to the idea of supporting a Congress-led Government.