The Congress has already announced P M Sayeed as its candidate and the BJP has a slender edge of only 12 votes over the Opposition. However, at today's meeting, between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and allies, both Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress and the Samata Party stayed away.

This has caused the BJP some concern although Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana said that both the parties had good reasons for not attending and that they had assured the PM of their support.

Khurana claimed Mamata had called the PM to explain that she could not come because her party workers had been attacked in Midnapore. As for Samata, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar was said to have beenbusy with another meeting and Defence Minister George Fernandes is in Kashmir. What has raised eyebrows is the fact that both parties did not depute one of their senior MPs to attend.

Although the decision to put up a BJP candidate was taken this morning, the Lok Sabha Speaker -- who has to notify the election -- left for Hyderabad this evening without doing so. Indications are that the election will either take place in August (if the two-day special Independence golden jubilee session is extended by a day) or in the winter session.

Lok Sabha Secretariat officials said that at least three days were necessary between notifying the election and voting; and that the earliest the election could be held is Tuesday. But Vajpayee is leaving on Tuesday morning for the SAARC summit in Colombo and returns only on the evening of the 30th. The session was to end on the 29th but was today extended by a day so that the Jain Commission report and ATR could be tabled.

According to convention, the PM should be presentat the election. Besides, every vote, including the PM's, will count in the close contest.

The BJP faces a problem deciding its candidate evident from the fact that the name was not announced today. While a powerful section is in favour of Rita Verma, another group seems to be inclined towards Shanta Kumar. Other possible nominees include Bhagwan Shankar Rawat and Laxmi Narain Pandey.Meanwhile, the government's suggestion to extend the session by four days (instead of one) was turned down by Opposition leaders at the Business Advisory Committee meeting today. The government was keen to extend the session to enable a full discussion on the Jain Commission report but Opposition leaders said they had finalised other commitments.

Meanwhile, the Jain Commission report alongwith the action taken report will now be placed in the House on July 30, and not July 27 as was originally scheduled. This was decided, Khurana said, last night by the Union Cabinet after consulting Opposition Leader Sharad Pawar, becausethe PM was leaving for Colombo on Tuesday. ``He wanted to be present in the House during the discussion,'' the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said. In the meantime, a group of ministers would study the voluminous report. To be headed by L K Advani, it would also comprise Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj and Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar.

According to Khurana, the date for holding discussion on the controversial report would be fixed on Monday. But it is likely that the session would be extended by a few more days for this purpose.