The Centre's affidavit, it is widely believed, came on account of pressure from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. His party, the TDP, is a big prop for the Vajpayee government.

Although Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna appeared confident that the Centre may even modify its affidavit, other members of the all-party delegation from the state were of the view that it would not be possible for the Vajpayee government to alter its stand. "If it does, the Centre would antagonise Naidu which at the moment it can ill-afford," said one of them.

After the delegation's meeting on Sunday with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, it had discussions on Monday with Union Water Resources Minister C PThakur.

According to Karnataka, the state would not be able to impound more than 90 tmc of water if the Almatti dam height was restricted to 512 metres. The Planning Commission has cleared the height only up to this level whereas Karnataka has already raised the height to 519 metres. At this height the state can utilise its share of 173 tmc as awarded by the Bachawat Tribunal fully by May 2000 when the award comes up for review.

Karnataka's demand is for allowing it to raise the level of the dam to 524 metres so that it can impound 100 tmc extra water which would not though be used for irrigation purposes but only for power generation. The water impounded would go back to the Krishna river.

The optimistic view in the Karnataka camp is that the Centre may modify its affidavit to say that the state's plea for raising the dam height to at least 519 metres is under process. The other view is that the Centre may not be able to alter its stand now and the only hope is the Supreme Court.