New Delhi, Aug. 6: An under-siege Sharad Pawar, unsure if he can manage to hold his Nationalist Congress Party flock together on the eve of the Maharashtra elections, has found help from unlikely quarters.

Five years after he rebelled against Sonia Gandhi’s leadership and broke away from the Congress with a core group of supporters to form the NCP, Pawar has had to turn to 10, Janpath to avert a split in his own party.

Pawar’s NCP confidant and Union minister of state for civil aviation Praful Patel met the Congress chief on Wednesday as an emergency measure. The Congress leadership formally signalled to Pawar the next day that it would do nothing to encourage “dissident” leaders rock the NCP chief’s boat on poll-eve.

Trying to avoid the embarrassment of publicly admitting his fear of an exodus of top NCP leaders to the Congress, Pawar recently urged the Congress leadership to remove what AICC functionaries termed a “non-existent” uncertainty over an alliance for the upcoming Assembly polls.

Congress functionaries say what the leader was seeking was an assurance that the Congress would not open its doors to NCP deserters.

Sonia obliged Pawar with a view to ensure that their alliance remains formidable for what is viewed as a tough election. The Congress chief yesterday discussed Pawar’s concerns with Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, state Congress unit chief Prabha Rau and AICC general secretary in charge of the state, Margaret Alva.

The leadership is understood to have decided not to admit any top NCP leader before the polls, overturning a decision taken at a meeting of state Congress leaders in Mumbai last week of admitting NCP leaders on a “case-by-case” basis.

Prominent dissidents like former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, minister Madhukar Pichhad, state unit chief Babanrao Pachpute and spokesman Vasant Chavan made bold to signal to Pawar that they intended to quit the party.

This prompted the NCP chief to set his “ego” aside and approach Sonia to bail him out and pre-empt the attempt of the dissidents and his detractors in the Congress to deal him a body blow.

With the Congress responding quickly to Pawar’s overtures, the stage is set for Sonia to make her first campaign foray into Maharashtra. She is scheduled to visit to the state on Wednesday and is sure to head to Nandurbar and Amaravati districts where malnutrition deaths have been reported.

Sonia has also instructed Shinde to begin seat-sharing talks with the NCP.