New Delhi, July 16: A “reluctant” Manmohan Singh spent most of today meeting MPs from the Congress and the UPA allies, present and prospective, on a “gentle” nudge from his party.

The Prime Minister was apparently uneasy to play the “numbers game” and get involved in anything that “smelt of a trade-off” but Congress managers convinced him such courtesies were “in order” in the run-up to the July 22 trust vote.

For most of the day, he spoke with the legislators who showed up in ones or groups at his residence, with Prithviraj Chavan, the minister of state in the PMO, in tow.

Singh will also treat the MPs to dinner at his house on July 20. The honoured guests that day will be the Samajwadis, his lifeline, as well as parties he manages to bring on board by then.

Sensing the trust vote would be too close to call, the MPs of the allies and the fence-sitters had sent loud signals that if the Congress wanted their votes, either Sonia Gandhi or Singh would have to meet them.

Over the next four days, Singh’s engagement diary will be dominated by political visitors, some of who will be meeting him for the first time in the last four years or so.

Usually, individual MPs wanting to approach Singh are directed to a PMO official, depending on what their request or agenda is.

Sonia is expected to meet Shibu Soren and H.D. Deve Gowda, who head the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Janata Dal (Secular) respectively. The votes of their MPs are likely to make the difference between victory and defeat.

The government is expected to unveil its first sop for the Rashtriya Lok Dal when it endorses a decision to rename Lucknow’s Amausi airport after Chaudhary Charan Singh. The three-MP party from west Uttar Pradesh is headed by Charan Singh’s son Ajit.

Congress sources said the airport re-christening could be a prelude to bigger goodies such as a cabinet berth for Ajit and a special package for the Jat belt. The Congress is keen to sew up an alliance with the RLD, which polled 4 per cent votes in the 2007 state election and matters in nearly 25 constituencies.

The sources said the leaders had managed to connect with Soren, who has been playing hard to get.

The Congress believes it can “breathe easy” when the five JMM MPs come around. Efforts are on to work on Gowda who has been blowing hot and cold.

Sops for girl students

The HRD ministry will pay Rs 3000 to girls from the SC/STs and central schools who are promoted to Class IX to ensure that they study till Class XII.

The money will, however, be handed over after the girls clear Class XII, a notification said.