Vayalar Ravi: Last week was an important week with everybody glued to television trying to find out who would win the trust vote. It was like we were in an election mode. We were tense as well. My job was to keep the numbers. I told the party leadership that if one component of the NDA or the SP came on board, we would have no problem. Then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati came onto the scene. And CPI leader A B Bardhan announced that votes were being purchased for Rs 25 crore. I believed it. The situation was tense and people, including Congress MPs, started calling me to find out whether the rumours were true. I told them not to panic. But the tension persisted because of the horse-trading from the other side. However, we were sure of winning and so I did not want to rush things. My job was to keep the UPA united, and I think I succeeded. We had to win over MPs from the Northeast and the JMM, which we succeeded in doing. The money incident in Parliament shocked me. I was in my office then and rushed to the Lok Sabha where Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was holding an all-party meeting. But the vote went ahead and we got a comfortable majority.

•Pranab Dhal Samanta: After the three BJP MPs came into the Parliament and there was a meeting in the Speaker’s chamber, was there a feeling in the Congress camp that the vote may be postponed?

... contd.