Rao delved deep into his bag of tricks to win support. In a stage-managed show, about a dozen ambitious, but rootless Muslim leaders, including the Naib Imam of Jama Masjid, offered him their support. B.P. Maurya (a turncoat who was made AICC general secretary after he ditched the Arjun Singh camp) won over BJP vice-president Arif Beg—a Madhya Pradesh leader without much of a base—and Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (Delhi Janata Dal) to the party fold. All this was in retaliation to Union minister Ram Singh's defection to the BJP recently. But more damaging was Scindia's move. Rao pan-icked and summoned Digvijay Singh to Delhi on April 5 and asked him to see if he could still convince Scindia, Kamal Nath and Arvind Netam to retire from the fray. Party spokesman V.N. Gadgil even withdrew an announcement that Scindia, Nath, Chidambaram and the others who had filed their nomination against the party's official candidates had been expelled from the party, betraying Rao's desperation. Nath and Netam relented but Scindia refused. Till the last minute, Rao and his coterie were trying to keep the doors open for a tactical patch-up. He convinced Jakhar and Buta Singh to put up their sons instead and persuaded Arvind Netam to withdraw in favour of his wife. But Chidambaram's exit affected the party in more ways than one. It delayed the release of the manifesto as he, along with Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, was responsible for listing the economic reforms, the second most important component after political stability in the Congress poll plank.