With just a weekend away from the trust vote in Parliament and the minor political players assuming major roles, the UPA government’s crisis managers have begun to work overtime.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee held a closed-door meeting with UPA partners and allies including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav this evening. And ailing Union Minister P R Dasmunshi was today flown in from Kolkata to New Delhi by a special aircraft to rework his political networking skills that he displayed as Parliamentary Affairs Minister in last year’s Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.

Although there is a growing chorus in the Congress that it isn’t worried if the government falls — leaders cite Rahul Gandhi’s if-we-fall-so-be-it speech — there is also a sense of nervousness over the numbers. For the record, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vyalar Ravi said: “We are still 280 plus.” But he refused to give details — and he has reason to.

As the numbers stand tonight, the trust vote looks set to go right down to the wire with the UPA struggling to reach the majority in the 542-member Lok Sabha (543 minus Kerala Congress MP P C Thomas who has no voting right).

Even assuming there is no defection from the Congress camp and the JMM and the RLD are on board, the UPA camp touches 264, eight short of a majority (see box).

This includes 32 from the SP plus three others — Raj Babbar, Beni Prasad Verma and NLP’s Baleshwar Yadav. Four SP members Atiq Ahmed, Rajnarayan Budhaulia, Jai Numbers: UPA has no confidence yet

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