The list of candidates "unanimously" sent by the MPCC to the Congress President was changed here to accommodate Pawar nominees and even MPCC chief and Pawar's bete noire Prataprao Bhosale and Ashok Chavan, son of S.B.Chavan, were axed.

This is seen as a sop by Sonia Gandhi to the Maratha leader whose damage potential in the crucial assembly elections is not being underestimated. The Congress chief is obviously taking no chances. It also shows that a pragmatic Gandhi is not allowing any group around her to become too powerful.

Bhosale's appointment as MPCC chief last July was an attempt to sideline Pawar and his nomination to the Legislative Council would have given an impetus to the process to set up a parallel system within the Congress in Maharashtra to the one controlled by Pawar. When the MPCC finalised thelist of candidates last Friday, newspaper headlines in Maharashtra shrieked that Pawar's influence would now be confined to Pune.

Pawar gave enough of warning signals when he said that he would not be able to campaign for Bhosale, and this meant that the MPCC chief could well be defeated. Pawar, who is keeping an extremely low profile at the moment, also refused to accept the leadership of the party's screening committee for Delhi to finalise the Congress candidates in the capital.It would have made him that much more accountable for the victory of the party candidates here.

The inclinations of the 19 MLAs Satara-Sangli area tells its own story, with 14 Congressmen and independents owing their loyalty to Pawar. Pawar's choice in Sangli-Satara was Vishnu Anna Patil, a nephew of the late Chief Minister Vasant Dada Patil. Realising the way the wind was blowing, Bhosale opted out of the race himself. Kamal Kishore Kadam is to be fielded in Nanded in place of Ashok Chavan, a sitting Council member.

Pawaralso had his way in the nomination of Ramarishna More from Pune in the local self bodies constituency.

Prafulla Patel, a one time protege of Pawar who had criticised his mentor recently to get close to the party High Command, was also rewarded as his nominee G Das Aggarwal was given the seat from Bhandara.

Sonia Gandhi is doing a carefully balanced rope tick not allowing anyone to get too close to her. While Pawar was allowed to have his way in this round, he was not invited to speak at the Youth Congress convention on at present in the capital. Besides, Sonia Gandhi, others who spoke included Rajesh Pilot, Natwar Singh and Manmohan Singh.

Arjun Singh has been perceived to be close to her since she took over and he has cobbled the so called alliance with the BSP in Madhya Pradesh along with Ajit Jogi, but he is not too happy with the move to instal Jitendra Prasada as the CWC member incharge of selecting party candidates in Madhya Pradesh. Prasada, stripped off his post as party vice president, has nowbeen somewhat rehabilitated.

Vincent George has been private secretary to Sonia Gandhi and earlier to Rajiv Gandhi but former Home Secretary RD Pradhan has also been looking after the personal secretariat of the Congress President in the AICC office. It was Pradhan who was responsible for the appointment of Shivraj Patil as media chief of the party--yet another attempt to offset the influence of Pawar in Maharashtra.