National Security Advisor M K Narayanan summoned the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, E S L Narasimhan, and expressed his displeasure that the country's top intelligence outfit could not locate five independent legislators of Jharkhand.
The five legislators were taken to New Delhi by the National Democratic Alliance, which later paraded them before the media and President A P J Abdul Kalam to prove the combine's strength in the Jharkhand assembly.
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According to a senior Congress leader, the IB had no clue about the movement of the five independents. It also did not know what they looked like.
A top IB official, however, denied this.
"If someone seeks to blame us for their mess what can we do about it. Right from the time these MLAs left Ranchi and till they reached the capital we kept on giving information to the prime minister's office every 30 minutes. We even told them when the MLAs reached Bhubaneswar," he said.
Intelligence sources blamed Arjun Singh and M L Fotedar for creating a mess in Jharkhand.
"They do not realise that with a sharp media around, these tricks would not work. What used to happen during their time cannot happen now," they said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has 30 legislators in the Jharkhand assembly, claims to have the support of these five Independents.
Incidentally, the names of two of these five MLAs also appears in the list of supporters of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress combine, which was invited to form the government in the state in a controversial decision taken on Wednesday by Governor Syed Sibtey Razi.
However, the five Independents would give the National Democratic Alliance a simple majority of 41 in the assembly of 81 members. This includes the Janata Dal-United's six legislators.