NEW DELHI, APRIL 20: The Congress today focused its efforts on obtaining letters of support for Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister of a minority government.Although the leadership question continues to vex some of the supporting parties, Congress leaders tapped the willing ones with a draft letter to be sent to President K R Narayanan establishing Sonia's claim to head an alternative government.Congress sources said the formulation discussed with supporting parties and individual MPs is something along the lines of an agreement to extend outside support to a Congress government ``under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi''.The President is expected to ask for letters of support before he formally invites the Congress to lead the next government.Congress leaders refused to divulge how many such letters they have succeeded in obtaining so far but judging by the tension pervading party circles, the roadblocks on the way to power have not been cleared yet.The manner in which Sonia swung into action today left no-one in any doubt that she was preparing to assume charge. She met a galaxy of leaders - I K Gujral, Jyoti Basu, Deve Gowda and Laloo Yadav - as well as dissidents from the BJP camp seeking a share of the power pie like Kalpnath Rai of the Samata Party, Vijay Rama Raju of the TDP and Buta Singh who wants to rejoin the party.However, the numbers are still uncertain. The Forward Bloc and RSP are believed to have told Congress leaders that their party constitutions explicitly forbid them from having anything to do with the Congress. They have indicated that while they may vote in favour of the party in the Lok Sabha, they cannot send the required support letters.This leaves the Congress seven MPs short of the 270 benchmark set by the BJP which will redouble its claim by calling on the President tomorrow with letters of support from its allies.In addition, Chandra Shekhar today put a spoke in the Congress party's plans by virtually refusing to back a Sonia-led government. Congress circles fear that Chandra Shekhar's hard stance may influence Mulayam Singh Yadav who is in any case an unwilling participant in the exercise.Faced with a shortfall in the continuing numbers game, the Congress will have to split some of the BJP's allies to get the go-ahead for government formation. The party is hoping that the process of splintering has started with the TDP whose MP, Vijay Rama Raju, today openly declared support to the Congress. Intermediaries and Congress leaders were hard at work today with Samata, Biju Janata Dal and Trinamul Congress MPs and will continue their negotiations tomorrow.The hitch is that these breakaway MPs want cabinet berths and also want to preserve their identities as separate parties which upsets the Congress plan to lead a minority government. The offer from the Congress is - merge and then take ministerial posts.The Congress expects the present stalemate to break after the budget is passed. The process will be completed only on Thursday when the Rajya Sabha puts its seal. Tomorrow, the Lok Sabha will pass it without discussion.The signal from Rashtrapati Bhavan on the formation of an alternative government will come only after the parliamentary formalities are over.Meanwhile, Sonia will have to continue her efforts to sort out the glitches. The Janata Dal, for instance, remains divided on the question of backing the Congress. Gujral told Sonia today that the party could not even begin to discuss the issue because the Congress had not formally sought its support.The BJP is hard at work to exploit the differences in the party through Hegde and Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel.In the evening, Vajpayee did his bit to keep his tottering coalition united by hosting a dinner at his residence for the allies.
