Ahmed Patel meets Sonia Gandhi, discusses Kota children deaths

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Saturday met party interim chief Sonia Gandhi over the death of 106 children in Rajasthan's Kota and also discussed the portfolio distribution in Maharashtra.

Patel held a marathon meeting with Sonia Gandhi at her residence for over 45 minutes.

According to party sources, the two leaders discussed the death of children in Rajasthan, where it has its government for the past year.

The death of children in the government hospital in Kota has pushed Congress on the backfoot in the state.

On being asked if Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra or former party chief Rahul Gandhi will go to Kota, the party source said, it is yet to be decided.

The party source also said that the two leaders also discussed the issue of portfolio distribution in Maharashtra, where it has forged an alliance with the Shiv Sena, besides it pre-poll alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party.

To a question over the dissent brewing in the party over the portfolio distribution, the source said, "no one is upset" on portfolio and there is no problem as such.

In November, two Congress MLAs were sworn in as ministers in Maharashtra along with Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister.

In the first Cabinet expansion last week, 10 more Congress MLAs were inducted as ministers in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.