Sonia meets Tharoor's boss over IPL row

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of the controversy surrounding Minister of State Shashi Tharoor's role in the IPL's Kochi team

Krishna drove past waiting newsmen outside Gandhi's residence without answering any questions from them.

Congress Member of Parliament Rajeev Shukla, who is vice president of the Board of Cricket Control of India, also held a meeting with Gandhi.

Shukla, however, claimed that he did not discuss the Tharoor issue with the Congress president.

"This issue was not discussed with her," Shukla said after meeting Gandhi.

Tharoor, who is locked in a fresh controversy around the Kochi IPL team which he helped set up, on Tuesday hit back at IPL boss Lalit Modi, alleging he had made attempts to pressure the winning consortium to abandon their bid for the Kerala outfit.

Tharoor also denied that he had told Modi not to ask details about owners of the consortium led by Rendezvous that bought the new franchisee.

In a statement, the minister of state for external affairs trained his guns on the powerful cricket board official , alleging that various attempts were made by Modi and others to pressure the members of the consortium to abandon their bid in favour of another city in a different state.

"I deny Lalit Modi's allegation that I called him during his meeting with investors in the Kochi consortium in Bangalore on Saturday night in order to press him not to question the composition of the consortium," Tharoor said.