Sonia calls up Lalu, asks him to attend cabinet meet

In an apparent bid to reach out to her estranged ally, Congress President Sonia Gandhi called Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and asked him to attend the Cabinet meeting scheduled for tomorrow.  

"UPA chairperson rang up the Railway Minister last evening and requested him to attend a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Monday," his private secretary Bhola Yadav told PTI today.  

He, however, did not divulge what transpired during the telephonic talk between the two leaders coming in the backdrop of severe drubbing of RJD-LJP led Fourth Front had in Bihar.  

The Railway Minister, he said, is scheduled to leave for Delhi later in the day.  Lalu has not been attending cabinet meetings ever since he forged an alliance with LJP and Samajwadi Party.  

An apparently contrite Lalu, Congress' largest ally in the outgoing Lok Sabha, had yesterday admitted that not contesting the elections in alliance with the Congress was a big mistake.  

"The decision to contest elections without the Congress on our side was a big mistake and I acknowledge it. However, it is a matter of great happiness for me that the Congress-led UPA is all set to form its government at the Centre," he had said.