Only a handful of people knew about the Bellary plan. Even as she was about to take off for Hyderabad on Tuesday evening en route Bellary, CWC members and senior party leaders were misled and told that she was going to file her nomination papers from Cuddapah.

The decision to pit Sushma against Sonia was a last-minute one and the operation was carried out with great attention to detail by the BJP and its allies. According to authoritative sources, the BJP leaders heard every word of the communication between the aircraft which carried Sonia Gandhi to Bellary and the control room at Hyderabad airport, having tuned into the same frequency. It was only when the pilot sought permission to land at Bellary 20 minutes ahead that Sushmatook off in the helicopter which was waiting at a private airport at Jakkur near Bangalore.

(Asked for comment, Venkiah Naidu responded with a cryptic,``no comment''.)

The Sushma idea was the brainchild of Hegde and Naidu. They had decided on the candidature of Rajasekhara Murthy from Bellary last Monday in Bangalore, and the local unit of the BJP had cleared the proposal. On Tuesday, Naidu managed to make contact with Hegde only at 10.30 pm, since the Commerce Minister was involved in a G-15 meeting being held in Bangalore. Hegde remarked during their telephone conversation that while Murthy was a sober leader and a Lingayat which would help in Bellary, what the constituency needed was an aggressive person ``like Sushma or George (Fernandes)'', if Sonia were to contest from there.

The possibility of Sonia contesting from the Karnataka constituency had been in the air for some days, particularly after it became public knowledge that a team was sent there by the Congress to explore the party'sprospects.

Naidu latched on to the idea immediately, even though Sushma had declared that she would not be contesting the 1999 general election. ``It was too late to get George to stand from there.'' Naidu telephoned Sushma around 12.30. Hegde had just spoken to her. ``I told her that she must stand, even though it was I who had been guilty of mooting the idea last year that she become the chief minister of Delhi,'' Naidu said.

Sushma responded positively and told the BJP general secretary that she was a soldier of the party and would go wherever the party wanted her to, whether it was to Bellary or to Kargil. But she wanted Naidu first to talk to the Party President, to L K Advani and to the Prime Minister.

Naidu woke up Advani who was in Karaikudi in Madurai at 2.40 am. Advani felt it was a very good idea and told Naidu to go ahead. Naidu then spoke to Khushabhau Thakre, who in turn called Sushma in Delhi, formally requesting her to contest against Sonia. ``I did not want to wake up the PM at thattime so I waited till 6 am,'' Naidu told The Indian Express.

``Idea to achcha hai, Sushma manegi kya?'' Vajpayee is believed to have asked. Naidu told the Prime Minister that he had already broached it with her in the night and she was agreeable. ``Hegde se baat hui kya?''Vajpayee asked next. Naidu replied in the affirmative. The Prime Minister gave his go ahead.

Naidu had asked Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar, who was also in Bangalore, to block two seats on the morning flight from Delhi to Bangalore for Sushma. In Delhi, Sushma had woken up Jagmohan, the BJP's candidate from New Delhi, first to make sure that her name had not been deleted from the voters' list and secondly to try and get a certified copy of the list. All this drama took place between 1 am and 4 am on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, Venkiah Naidu had put into motion a parallel plan, not fully sure whether Sonia would stand from Bellary or from Cuddapah or Medak. He had called up Andhra Pradesh Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu at midnight, and sought his feedback about Sonia's moves. The CM told him that his information was that Sonia was headed for Karnataka; Venkiah Naidu told him that he had heard she would file her papers from Cuddapah. They decided to exchange notes in the morning by which time they would know either from the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) or from sources in the IB about Sonia's flight plan.

Meanwhile, the two men also discussed what their plan should be if Sonia decided to head towards Cuddapah. They hit upon the idea of fielding Vijayashanti, a south Indian actress and a BJP member. Cuddapah had been left for the TDP in the division of seats between the two parties, but Advani dismissed this as a minor matter when Naidu spoke to him about it. Though Vijayashanti's trip was arranged, it was not necessary as Sonia decided on Bellary.