Sonia meets Maharashtra Congress chief, discusses resignations

A day after actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar and former Maharashtra Home Minister Kripa Shankar Singh resigned from the party, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with party state unit chief Eknath Gaikwad here.

Gaikwad arrived at Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10 Janpath and held discussions with her for over an hour on Wednesday.

He said that the UPA chairperson discussed the issue of many leaders deserting the party ahead of the Assembly polls in the state, which is just two months away.

On Tuesday, Matondkar, who had joined the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and contested unsuccessfully accused its Mumbai leadership of "betrayal".

Meanwhile, Singh - once billed as the Congress' benign north-Indian face in Mumbai - has also expressed his differences with the Congress' official stance opposing the recent striking down of the Constitution's Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir.

The Congress said that Sonia also discussed the issue of an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and other parties in the state ahead of the assembly polls.

On Tuesday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar also met Sonia Gandhi in Delhi.

In the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Maharashtra by winning 122 seats in the 288-member Assembly. BJP's ally Shiv Sena won 62 seats. The Congress and the NCP bagged 42 and 41 seats, respectively.

The Congress and the NCP are looking for a comeback in the state.