Maharashtra Congress MLAs meet Sonia, Rahul after state cabinet expansion

Several Maharashtra Congress MLAs visited New Delhi and met the party leadership after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackery expanded his cabinet. They downplayed dissatisfaction among themselves on not being given "proper representation" in the government and said it was just a "courtesy call".

New Delhi: A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackery expanded his cabinet to its full strength, several Congress MLAs from the state visited the national capital and met the senior party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

"Congress has many experienced and good leaders in Maharashtra and the party not getting a good number of cabinet seats has led to some dissatisfaction among the members," Balasaheb Thorat, Congress MLA said.

He, however, said that the issue would be sorted out. Another Congress leader and former chief minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan said: "It was natural to have some dissatisfaction over the issue but it was not an issue".

"Issues like these could be sorted out," he added.

Interacting with media after the meeting, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge also expressed similar views and said that it was the chief minister's duty to allot portfolios to the ministers.

The Congress leaders from the state also termed the meeting with the party leadership as a "courtesy call" after the cabinet expansion in the state where Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena formed the government a few weeks ago.