The RJD, with its 24 MPs, is the second-largest constituent of the UPA; the DMK with 16 MPs is the third-largest.

"In 2004, we had to make a lot of concessions to defeat the BJP," a Congress leader said. "Now the threat of the BJP is not really there." To increase its bargaining power, the Congress has roped in Dalit leader and Union Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan. With Paswan -- who shares the grievance of few seats -- the party hopes to strike a collective bargain with Lalu.

"The four seats we contested as part of the alliance in 2004 plus the 11 seats that the RJD or the LJP could not win the last time should come to us," said Anil Sharma, president of the Bihar Congress. "The social equation in these seats is such that only a Congress candidate can put up a strong contest." Lalu, conscious that his political magic is waning, sounds receptive. His fellow RJD man and Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, is not as easy. "The UPA together won 29 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in 2004," said Singh. "There remain only 11 seats; the alliance partners can sit and discuss (this)." In Tamil Nadu, the Congress could make a pitch for about 1516 seats. "It is too early yet," said Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jayanti Natarajan. "The high command will take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time." The Congress has not forgotten the days in 1991 when it contested 26 of 39 seats as part of an alliance with the DMK's arch rival, the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK). The Congress contested two-thirds of Lok Sabha seats and the AIADMK a similar per cent of assembly seats.