Vilasrao Deshmukh meets Sonia Gandhi

Amid the party high command's disapproval of senior Maharashtra minister Narayan Rane's open attack on him on certain cabinet issues, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday.

It is unclear as to what transpired at the meeting which was the first after Rane's fresh outburst against Deshmukh. The cause for the latest flare up is allotment of a plot of land to the Videocon group, which Rane is alleging has been given at a throwaway price, a charge denied by the chief minister.

Deshmukh also had meetings with senior party leaders Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, party sources said.

A defiant Rane has thrown the ball in the high command's court by sending his resignation to Gandhi. He had visited Delhi last week to meet central leaders and at that time the Congress president had gone to Beijing.

A section of the Congress leadership feels that Rane, a former chief minister who joined the party after parting ways with Shiv Sena, needed to have extra patience in the grand old party.

"Our party is an old organisation which moves slowly like an elephant and so Rane should understand that decisions take time," said a senior leader.

During his day-long visit, Deshmukh also met Union Ministers Praful Patel, Murli Deora and Lalu Prasad.