NEW DELHI, March 3: Government formation may not be an easy task, BJP strategists admitted today, even while the party swung into action - counting numbers, rounding up allies and drafting a common minimum programme. Current indications are that government formation will not take place for another 10 days.The BJP held informal strategy sessions throughout the day: A one-to-one meeting between BJP president L K Advani and the party's prime ministerial candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee, among general secretaries and with allies.The general view was that though the BJP combine lacked numbers at present, the Congress and United Front would not be able to resolve the leadership problem which would then give the BJP a clear advantage. In his first reaction to the elections, Advani said that the polls marked a "great leap forward" for the BJP."We have increased our number of seats, now have representation from the south and east and our percentage of votes has gone up to about 36 per cent while the Congress"is about 28 per cent," he said. "No other party or formation can provide a stable government."Vajpayee said that a final view on government formation would emerge only after two or three days, after a meeting of the party's office bearers and also with all allies.Meanwhile, riding the crest of her spectacular electoral success, Mamata Banerjee today made it clear that her fledgling Trinamool Congress would support a BJP-led government at the Centre. "It"ll be a stable government, she told The Indian Express.But she is not attending the meeting in Delhi tomorrow to which the BJP has called its allies to discuss its strategy to form the government. She told this to Atal Behari Vajpayee when the latter telephoned her this morning to congratulate her on the success of the Trinamool Congress-BJP combine in West Bengal. She would be in Delhi along with the successful candidates of her party later this week.The party seems, however, still undecided on joining a BJP-led government. Mamata said shewould discuss the issue with her colleagues in a day or two.The party is just touching the 250-seat mark along with its existing partners and would need at least 20 more for a majority in the Lok Sabha. (Getting down to minute calculations, leaders said that since five seats have yet to go to the polls and two seats are nominated, it currently needs 50 per cent of only 538 seats and not 545.)According to sources, support from nine MPs has already been sewn up: four from the Haryana Lok Dal (HLD), two from the Arunachal Congress, one BSP rebel and two Independents - Maneka Gandhi and Buta Singh. Getting 11 more should not be an insurmountable problem, it is felt. The party is now counting the singles - one-MP parties and Independents - to make up numbers.But the big one is the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is expected to have a tempting bloc of 16 MPs. The BJP has already opened channels of communication with the TDP and is calculating that it would not ally with the Congress since the latteris its main rival in Andhra Pradesh.However, Chandrababu Naidu is also convenor of the United Front and may not agree to join hands with the BJP. In that case, say BJP sources, it would not be impossible to engineer a split and wean away about four MPs if that becomes necessary.The BJP also cannot take the support of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress for granted, despite the fact that they were poll allies.
