Chavan to meet Sonia Gandhi, explain 'role' in land scam

Congress President Sonia Gandhi held consultations with senior party leaders this morning as Maharashtra's beleaguered Chief Minister Ashok Chavan landed in New Delhi to meet the central leadership. Nothing ideal about the deal

Congress President Sonia Gandhi held consultations with senior party leaders this morning as Maharashtra's beleaguered Chief Minister Ashok Chavan landed in New Delhi to meet the central leadership.

HT Image

Chavan was summoned to meet the Congress President after his name cropped up in a controversy surrounding Adarsh housing society in Mumbai.

The party leaders whom Gandhi met in the morning include Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, Political Secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel, AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan who also hails from Maharashtra.

The Congress high command appears to be upset with Chavan, whose mother-in-law and two other relatives are among the 103 members of the controversial Adarsh Housing Society project in which several politicians, former Defence Services chiefs and other influential people have been alloted flats.

The land on which the 31-storey building in posh Colaba was said to have been meant for Kargil war heroes and widows.

The decision to summon Chavan to the Capital for a meeting with the Congress Chief comes despite his announcement yesterday that flats alloted to his mother-in-law and two other relatives were being surrendered. This has obviously not impressed the party leadership.

Highly placed sources said last night that Chavan, who became chief minister a year ago, is likely to be asked to step down in the wake of the Adarsh Housing scam.

Chavan had been involved in clearing papers for the upscale high-rise Adarsh building project in his previous capacity as the Revenue minister.