Maharashtra chief minister meets Sonia Gandhi, PM

New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) Five days after taking over as the Maharashtra chief minister, Ashok Chavan met Congress president Sonia Gandhi here Friday during which security issues were discussed.

According to sources in the Congress party, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel were also present at the meeting.

Earlier, Chavan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and informed him of the various steps being taken to fight terrorism, including setting up of a State Security Council on the lines of the National Security Council, training of personnel, and police reforms which a Group of Ministers under the chairmanship of the Maharashtra chief minister would oversee.

Chavan was sworn in Maharashtra chief minister on Dec 8 with Chhagan Bhujbal of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as his deputy and 38 ministers.

He was named the new leader of the Democratic Front alliance on Dec 6 to succeed Vilasrao Deshmukh, who had to step down in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. Bhujbal was appointed in place of R.R. Patil, who had also quit on the same issue.