Congress leaders meet Sonia-Rahul amid rift over cabinet expansion in Maharashtra

Amid rift over cabinet expansion in Maharashtra Congress MLAs met Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Tuesday. Senior party leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal, were also present. After meeting Rahul Gandhi, Maharashtra Congress Chief Balasaheb Thorat dismissed reports of a rift in Maha Vikas Aghadi over cabinet expansion. After more than a month, the cabinet expansion of Maharashtra government took place on Monday with 10 Congress MLAs taking oath as cabinet ministers. 

Pictures of the meeting surfaced:

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Rift within Congress?

However, murmurs of dissent within the Congress have also cropped up amid reports that some senior Congress leaders are miffed about the appointments in the Maharashtra Cabinet. According to sources, a rift broke out within the party over the cabinet minister selection and portfolio of those ministers. Sources also report that this meeting was summoned as the tussle within the party was growing.

Also, Malikarjun Kharge has been called to look into the matter and handle the situation. Further, the sources said that the leaders within the meeting also raised Prithviraj Chavan's issue as he was denied the cabinet seat. Opposing that another fraction of leaders said that there are leaders who are working for the party from the last 30 years, but were never inducted in the cabinet and Prithviraj Chavan being the senior leader should understand the same and maintain the decorum in the party.

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Maharashtra cabinet expansion

A month after allying with the BJP and becoming the deputy CM under Devendra Fadnavis for just 80 hours, NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Monday again took oath as the deputy CM, this time under the Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Uddhav's Son Aaditya Thackeray and former chief minister Ashok Chavan also took oath as Cabinet ministers. NCP leaders Nawab Malik, Dilip Walse Patil, Dhananjay Munde, and Congress’ Vijay Wadettiwar were also inducted into the Cabinet.

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