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Former President Jerry John Rawlings, the man who until recently had virtually become an alien in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), has suddenly become the �darling boy� and a toast of the party. Mr Rawlings has suddenly become a hot cake in the NDC, with party leaders desperate to get him aboard the 2012 campaign trail by all means. DAILY GUIDE sources said a strategy has been devised to use chiefs and traditional authorities, especially those from the Volta Region, to appeal to Mr Rawlings to bury the hatchet and join the campaign. Sources said arrangements had been made to use state resources through the Office of the Chief of Staff, John Henry Martey Newman at the Presidency, to dish out cash to the chiefs for the sole agenda of reconciling the two leaders. The chiefs, the source said, would then be making proclamations in various regions through press conferences and statements, calling on the former President to smoke the peace pipe with President Mills in the �interest of the country�. Upper East regional Minister, Mark Owen Woyongo, has already confirmed the use of chiefs and queen mothers for the NDC agenda 2012. The minister said as part of the plan, queen mothers in all the various regions would be drafted into the coalition to reconcile the two men, saying that the coalition would first meet the Chief of Staff to discuss the issue with them before proceeding to meet the two men. But suspended deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Kofi Adams, also spokesman for the Rawlingses, has rubbished the premise of the supposed reconciliation move, saying that his boss would only join the NDC�s campaign trail if the values and principles he so much revered were restored. Mr Adams said Mr. Rawlings was not aware of any such meeting, describing it as a �wrong premise� which was likely to give a wrong result. He stated that Mr. Rawlings did not in any way constitute a �threat to the peace in the 2012 elections,� insisting a meeting for reconciliation was not the way to go. Though, he said the NDC founder was open to unity, it would only be premised on the values and principles of the party, since Rawlings was driven by politics of conviction but not convenience. He however did not mention what those values and principles were. Kofi Adam, who spoke on various networks, insisted that no amount of promptings and appeals would get Mr Rawlings back if the values, conviction and principles which were the foundation on which the NDC was formed, were broken. He wondered why regional ministers were those initiating the peace process when they had previously treated the NDC founder like a leper. Mr Adams said the regional ministers made it a point of duty to dodge Mr Rawlings in the run-up to the NDC congress in Sunyani last year whenever he visited the various regions simply because he supported his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings�s bid. The NDC had made several moves to get Mr Rawlings and his wife to join the party�s campaign ahead of the 2012 general elections but had turned out to be a pipedream. The leadership of the party had initially bluffed its way to victory with or without the Rawlingses, thereby discounting the influence of the founder in the party. But sources in the NDC told DAILY GUIDE the initiative had become necessary after several surveys and polls commissioned by the party showed it was set to lose the 2012, hence its decision to bring on board Mr Rawlings. That was why the Awomefia of Anlo, Togbe Sri III, travelled from the Volta Region to Accra to meet Mr Rawlings and his wife on Monday in an attempt to patch the seeming factionalism and disunity in the party. The next day, leading members of the NDC, including all the ten regional ministers, met in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, to fashion out a comprehensive approach on how to go about the initiative, settling on the use of chiefs. The meeting, which was held at the regional Coordinating Council, was also attended by all ten regional chairmen of the NDC, with the party�s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the man who once said the �barking dog has been tamed,� a metaphor for the tough-talking style of Mr Rawlings, in attendance. Upper East regional Minister, Mark Woyongo, who has since confirmed the initiative, said it was intended to get the former President and the incumbent to �sing from the same hymn sheet�. Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Francois Yao Kpegah, has also confirmed the Volta regional chiefs� meeting with the Rawlingses on Monday. Some chiefs from the Volta region met Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu at separate meetings in Accra on Monday to reconcile them with President Mills.