Battered Tarun Gogoi meets Sonia

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to brief her about the political situation in the state where dissidents were demanding change of guard after the party's poor show in Lok Sabha polls.

Gogoi is under pressure from dissidents to reshuffle his ministry.

Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, one among the four ministers in the dissident camp, had held discussions with senior All India Congress Committee leaders on the crisis in the state a few days back.

While there have been indications that Gogoi won't be replaced, some compromise formulae is understood to have been worked with the dissidents. Gogoi's meeting with the Congress president today is to be seen in this context.

Gogoi had also met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi twice in the first week of June while a three-member AICC team discussed the matter threadbare with the leadeship.

After Congress got its lowest ever tally in Assam -- 3 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats -- in recent Lok Sabha elections, 78-year-old Gogoi had said he would resign within a week.

However, when Gogoi met Sonia Gandhi on May 22, his offer of resignation was rejected by her.

Gogoi has been Chief Minister of Assam since 2001.

More than 40 Congress MLAs had challenged Gogoi's leadership and demanded a change of guard. There are 78 Congress MLAs in Assam's 126-member assembly.

The Congress leadership had asked Gogoi to patch up with the dissidents within a specific time failing which he should convene a meeting of Congress Legislature Party to elect a new leader.

President of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Bhubaneswar Kalita had said earlier that discussions were going on in different quarters on how to end the criss and that the party is talking to everyone.