Karnataka crisis: Krishna meets Sonia, Rahul

With the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka facing political crisis, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and newly-elected Vice President Rahul Gandhi held detailed discussions with former External Affairs Minister and senior party leader S M Krishna about the political scene ahead of the May assembly polls there.

Krishna met the Congress president for half-an-hour during which they went over the recent political developments in the state apart from the poll strategies, sources said.

Apart from discussing the prospects of Congress in the polls, they also discussed "pros and cons" of what will happen if the assembly elections were held ahead of the schedule, sources said, adding Krishna also met Rahul for about 40 minutes and discussed ways to galvanise partymen in the state.

This is Krishna's first meeting after he skipped the Congress Chintan Shivir at Jaipur and travelled to Vietnam to attend a conference.

Jolting the six-month-old Jagadish Shettar ministry, as many as 13 BJP MLAs including B S Yeddyurappa, who launched Karnataka Janata Party, resigned, creating instability for the state government.

Congress is trying to highlight the good work done by the Krishna-government during 1999-2004. Krishna is one of the senior leader among Vokkalingas, comprising 18 per cent of the state population.