HECTIC rounds of talks followed a splintered mandate. Telephones buzzed from left toright, crossing party lines, in an effort to muster the majority mark which could be usedto convince President Shankar Dayal Sharma that he should invite a non-Bharatiya JanataParty formulation to form the government. The saffron brigade had marched far too ahead ofboth the Congress and the National Front-Left Front combine and unless they got their acttogether fast, the President would have no option but to invite Atal Behari Vajpayee ofthe BJP, the largest single party, to head the new government at the Centre.