The sigh of relief following the SC order, fixing May 10 for the crucial floor test while barring the nine Congress rebels from participating in it, turned into a deep frown on the brows of Harish Rawat and the Congress after as many as eight Congress MlAs gave a miss to the tea party the former CM hosted at his residence at Bijapur late Friday evening to the MlAs supposedly loyal to him to gauge their mood in the changed scenario. Even cracks seemed to have surfaced in the PDF, the time-tested Cong ally, as one of the six MlAs belonging to the group, Haridas came and left the tea party in a huff, saying he was annoyed with PDF chairman Mantri Prasad Naithani for failing to address his grievances. Eight Cong MlAs who were conspicuous by their absence are Vijay Pal Sajwan, Rajkumar, Madan Singh Bisht, Mamta Rakesh, Rekha Arya, Preetam Singh, Navprabhat and lalit Farswan.
Significantly, BJP asked all its MlAs to be present in Dehradun on May 9, a day before the floor test.