Only two days left to Lok Sabha election results and the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today stepped up efforts to woo some smaller parties expected to play key roles in formation of the government in a badly fractured parliament.

Keeping aside the bitterness that was generated by long election campaign, the Congress has now reached out to estranged partners Samajwadi Party (SM), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and also the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) that combat elections as a 3-member bloc in the crucial states of UP and Bihar.

Despite the professing allegiance to its ally the DMK in Tamil Nadu, which is another politically crucial state, the Congress now made its first public move to appease the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa whose alliance is broadly expected of winning a majority of the region’s 40 Lok Sabha seats.

Even the Congress asserted that it was confident of forming the government with Manmohan Singh as the PM, it hinted, though first time, that it was willing to do business with new parties of like-minded.