``Saheb couldn't receive all the visitors and the compound can't take in all those cars, so he sits at the Y B Chavan Prathisthan,'' says an aide.

So the Maratha strongman, whose rebellion has thrown the Congress into a tizzy, now holds court at the Y B Chavan Prathisthan, a stone's throw away from Mantralaya. In keeping with its proximity to state government's seat of power, the prathisthan has become virtually a parallel power centre crammed with the excitement of a pre-poll party office. If you're not dressed in all white, you might as well be invisible.

Sonia Gandhi's tactical resignation folowing Pawar's revolt on Saturday has instantly thrust the letter controversy into the background and may have succeeded in isolating the former chief minister for themoment. But the mood among his supporters is one of exuberance as they sit in the large open verandah outside his office, waiting for an audience. Clad in white, former ministers, party leaders and legislators stride purposefully in and out of his office.

Pawar spent most of yesterday and today closetted in his office on the fourth floor of the prathisthan, of which he is president, receiving party workers. He also requests mediamen not to photograph his followers: ``Don't put them in any trouble.'' Tomorrow, he will embark on a two-day tour of his fiefdom in rural Maharashtra.

Pawar loyalist and former minister Padamsinh Patil rattles off instructions to party workers on his cellphone: ``No, don't indulge in any hangama, just exercise restraint,'' he says, referring to Monday's clash between pro- and anti-Pawar groups.

State Opposition leader, Chhagan Bhujbal, wants both Pawar and Sonia to remain in the party. He says: ``Particularly in the interests of Maharashtra where we are fighting theSena-BJP combine tooth and nail.''

Pawar storm-trooper and former state Youth Congress president, Jitendra Awhad, attacks Pawar's detractors. ``They're all rootless wonders who can't win an election on their own.''

But if it's not the absolute loyalty that Pawar commands among his followers in the state, it's his virtual lack of nourishment that has surprised officials at the Prathisthan. ``I saw him take only a sip of water yesterday... I haven't seen him eat anything,'' says an official.

The choice of venue has also rankled the anti-Pawar faction in the state. ``We would have understood speaking to people at Ramalayam or even Tilak Bhavan, but when you call all your MPs and MLAs to the Y B Chavan centre, we fail to understand the motive,'' says Congress leader, Major Sudhir Sawant. He also cannot understand why Pawar has raised an issue already bandied about by the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh. Sawant calls Pawar's move a repeat of the incidents of 1969, when the syndicate of senior Congress leaderstried to marginalise Indira Gandhi.

Sawant is sitting at the Congress office behind the Y B Chavan Prathisthan, where dozens of Youth Congress supporters led by its President Muzaffar Hussain are on a hunger strike demanding that Sonia Gandhi withdraw her resignation. The strongman may just have run out of space to manoeuvere.