Sonia meets PM on Tharoor issue

NEW DELHI: With the Shashi Tharoor issue on the boil, Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this evening to decide on the minister's continuance in the government.

They were joined later by other members of the Congress Core Group including senior party leaders Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram and Political Secretary to Congress president Ahmad Patel.

This is the first meeting between Gandhi and Singh after the controversy erupted over the Kochi IPL ownership issue involving Tharoor.

Even as the parleys began, Tharoor's friend Sunanda Pushkar, who has a sweat equity valued at Rs 70 crore in the IPL Kochi franchise, resigned from Rendezvous Sports World. The company is one of the stakeholders in IPL Kochi.

On a day of fast paced developments, Tharoor met the Prime Minister for about 45 minutes during which is he is understood to have explained his position to Singh in the wake of allegations that he helped his friend Sunanda to acquire a sweat equity in the Kochi IPL franchise.

There was no official word on what transpired at the meeting either from the Prime Minister's Office or from Tharoor's side.

There were conflicting reports one of which said Tharoor was unwilling to step down on the ground that he has not done anything wrong while another said he was willing to quit if the party and the government found him to be an embarrassment.