<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>PM too late, Advani gone</b>
RASHEED KIDWAI
Singh, Advani on Thursday. (PTI)
New Delhi, Nov. 27:<b> Manmohan Singh flew to Mumbai this evening only an hour after L.K. Advani, who had been insisting the two go together in a show of unity, had taken off.</b>
The separate travel plans, after the leader of the Opposition's attempts to persuade the Prime Minister to present a united face in the terror-numbed city, led many in Delhi to believe that politics had got the better of solidarity.
Since early today, Advani was in a hurry to get to Mumbai with the Prime Minister to send a signal that the nation was united and determined to foil attempts to destabilise it.
Singh was reluctant, though, preferring to give the Vilasrao Deshmukh government more time to flush out terrorists and normalise the situation. VVIP movement could strain an already stretched administration, he believed.
<b>Sources said Advani called the Prime Minister thrice and each time, the leader of the Opposition seemed eager to travel today. In his genial way, Singh tried to dissuade him, suggesting tomorrow was a better option.</b>
However, by the time the PMO decided to shed its initial reluctance for a rare coming together of the ruling UPA and the Opposition, Advani had taken the plane out.
<b>Soon after, around 5.30pm, the Prime Minister was off, too, with Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Shivraj Patil and others.</b>
<b>Congress leaders said the Prime Minister's early unwillingness to visit "ground zero" today had Sonia's blessings.</b> Â <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> The Congress president, herself keen to visit Mumbai once it was normal, is said to have agreed with Singh's view that the state should be left to focus on the task at hand.
However, when she learnt about Advani's eagerness to go today, she encouraged Singh to present a united face. By then, though, the BJP leader had left.
<b>Caught off guard, Sonia then decided the Prime Minister should fly out right away instead of letting Advani score brownie points in Mumbai ahead of polls in many states.</b>
The Prime Minister's evening flight capped a day of huddles, including a cabinet meeting where home minister Shivraj Patil left his colleagues dissatisfied with what they privately said was a "sketchy" briefing on the attacks. <b>The minister apparently couldn't name the spots or give the exact numbers of terrorists involved.</b>
In the Congress, there is a growing sense of despondency that the Mumbai attack is going to cost them dearly in the Assembly elections now under way. Congress leaders said Sonia and Singh should fix the responsibility for the strikes to shore up the party's Lok Sabha poll prospects. <b>There are signs Patil's exit may be discussed next week when the UPA reviews the situation</b>.
As the meetings went on, senior ministers kept receiving frantic calls about the wellbeing of VIPs in the two Mumbai hotels where the terrorists were holed up.
Steel magnate and NRI Lakshmi Mittal called up petroleum minister Murli Deora from London to find out more about the attacks.<b> Deora also received a call from Qatar authorities concerned about their consulate-general at the Taj hotel. The diplomat was later rescued</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
