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 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