Click to play videoNo ally is too small and no slight too big to forget in the season of political uncertainty.
A clear sign of that was Congress’ Digvijay Singh apologising to Amar Singh for their war of words during campaigning.
Hence despite the confidence booster it's got from post poll surveys, Congress is ot leaving anything to chance, wooing anyone and everyone it can.
If the UPA manages to cross 200 seats, then the Fourth Front of Mulayam, Lalu and Paswan could add up to 35 seats.
Around 30 seats are added by Jayalalitha if she does really well, which the Congress is still treating as a possibility. Digvijay Singh has already made it clear that the party does not consider Jayalalithaa as communal.
But that comes at the cost of the DMK being dumped and Navin Patnaik joins with 10 seats.
If the UPA stops just short of 200, along with the earlier numbers, it could take the Left's support and the 30 seats it could get -- but that could mean losing Mamata.
If the UPA's tally is even lower, say close to 185, it will need to persuade Nitish Kumar's JD(U) to join in as well. But the BJP won't let the Nitish government in Bihar stand.
In a crunch, the UPA could even approach Mayawati, though she is on the backburner for now.
The JD(S) is also a likely ally, specially since Kumaraswamy's late night meeting with Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress is also talking to Chiranjeevi's Prajarajyam party in Andhra.
And though the JD(S) and Prajarajyam have hardly much national presence, even the value of bit players in the political theatre has gone up several fold, given the nature of the script.
BJP’s OPTIONS
Meanwhile, the BJP is also cobbling up support. Gujarat Chief Narendra Modi landed in Delhi early morning on Thursday to lead the BJP's efforts to strengthen the NDA.
Given the second position in the CNN-IBN's election survey -- and by other surveys as well - the BJP will need all its persuaders to go out and pull in as many allies as it can.
If the NDA does get around 200, it can persuade BJP former allies mayawati, jayalalithaa and the TDP to return.
If Mayawati returns with the 30 seats as projected and 20 between Jayalalithaa and Chandrababu, it'll put the NDA through.
Modi is already in touch with Jayalalithaa.
Top party strategist Arun Jaitley is trying to entice Mayawati and has a channel open with her top aide, Satish Chandra Mishra. and senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu is Hyderabad talking up Chandrababu Naidu.
The downside to this scenario is that both Jaya and Maya are tough, moody and in the case of the BSP chief, also completely unreliable.
But the problem for the BJP is the lower number of around 185.
In that case it will need reach out to another volatile woman - Mamata Banerjee.
She is projected to get around 15 seats and if the Congress continues its pursuit of the Left, the Trinamool will be open to be poached.
However, for the BJP to handle all three - Jaya, Maya and Mamata -- in a single alliance will be very tough, if not downright impossible.
The BJP has got the TRS in its kitty after it abandoned the Third Front. P A Sangma is also leaning towards the NDA. The BJP is also targeting Chiranjeevi's Prajarajyam and Ram Vilas Paswan.
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