MP Priya Dutt after meeting Sonia Gandhi. (Fotocorp)

New Delhi, July 19: The Congress has put up its first show of solidarity after Haryana MP Arvind Sharma joined the BSP yesterday.

The party’s Lok Sabha MPs called on Sonia Gandhi in batches at her residence this morning. Those who went in hoping to get a pep talk before the July 22 trust vote came out feeling reassured.

“She looked so calm and confident that we returned feeling reassured of a victory,” an Andhra Pradesh MP said.

Sonia told her MPs to propagate the Indo-US nuclear deal as a “pro-farmer and a pro-poor” treaty. She said the deal should not be viewed through the communal prism, as India had never said it would pursue its relations with the US at the cost of old friends like Iran.

She said she expected her MPs to know what to do during the trust vote.

Six MPs — three from Karnataka, two from Tamil Nadu and Sharma — did not turn up. But sources dismissed their absence, saying Ambareesh — who allegedly sought greener pastures in Karnataka — was shooting for a film and the others had never figured on the list of fence-sitters.

The Congress was reassured at its nine Uttar Pradesh MPs showing up because there had been speculation that three would cross to the BSP.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will tomorrow host a dinner for UPA MPs. But Congress general secretaries and leaders of state units and legislature parties have also been invited to dispel the notion that Singh and his party are “not in synch” on the deal.

The UPA line-up includes the Samajwadis and the JMM, and prospective allies such as the RLD, JD(S) and the NC.

As the RLD, JD(S), JMM and NC have not yet disclosed their intentions, Prithviraj Chavan, the minister of state in the PMO, said: “We are confident of winning the vote.”

Sources said the party was looking to build a “substantial buffer” to take care of “shock desertions” mainly from the Samajwadi and the RJD. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was allegedly doing to the RJD what Mayavati was doing to the Samajwadi.

Samajwadi leader Mulayam Singh Yadav reportedly promised to “deliver” 34 MPs and make up the shortfall with Mayavati’s “deserters”.

The Congress is counting on four abstentions from the Biju Janata Dal, two from the Akali Dal, two from the Shiv Sena and one from the TRS. It has also factored in the vote of Gujarat rebel Somabhai Patel.