Prithviraj Chavan meets Sonia Gandhi to discuss poll debacle

New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister

Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi

amid growing dissensions in the state unit in the wake of the

party's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.

Chavan did not say anything after the meeting -- the first,

after the results were declared on 16 May which saw Congress

getting its lowest tally of just two of the 48 Lok Sabha seats

in the state.

Soon after the results, Chavan had accepted full

responsibility for the defeat. Sunday's meeting took place in

the backdrop of Congress leadership grappling with the issue

of possible in party-ruled states where it performed poorly in

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the polls.

A senior party leader had last week said that with

assembly polls in Maharashtra due within six months, the party

will have to think about corrective measures at the earliest.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who

managed to win one of the two seats which Congress retained in

the state, has already trained his guns on Chavan.

"In areas where the leadership was strong, the Narendra

Modi wave did not have an impact," he had said in an apparent

dig at the chief minister.

"The party needs to do a thorough analysis to look into

what went wrong and take corrective measures," Ashok Chavan

had said.

His criticism came at a time when many within Maharashtra

Congress are demanding a leadership change ahead of Assembly

polls. Several senior ministers are reportedly vying for the

chief minister's chair.

Last week, Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane

and EGS Minister Nitin Raut had sent in their resignations in

a move which is being seen as attempt to force Chavan's exit.

Both resignations were rejected.

Three days ago, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Virbhadra Singh and

Tarun Gogoi had met Gandhi after the poor performance of the

party in their respective states Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and

Assam.

PTI