Bhubaneswar, Sep 15 (PTI): On Friday, when Rahul Gandhi met little Sasmita Rana at a hospital in Odisha's Cuttack, she was too ill to speak but somehow communicated that she wanted him to console her mother. A day later, the seven-year-old died of aplastic anaemia.

Expressing grief, the Congress vice president described Sasmita as the "bravest girl I ever met."

Expressing grief over the death of the little girl from Raitala village in Odisha's tribal dominated Keonjhar district, Rahul tweeted, saying: "Sasmita Rana, the bravest little girl I ever met, died at Sishu Bhavan in Cuttack. She remained proud and strong against all odds."

Mr Gandhi met the girl when he visited the Sishu Bhavan in Cuttack on hearing that more than 60 infants had died there last month.

"I saw the spirit... future of Odisha inside the hospital where a child was lying on bed and the mother was crying.

However, the child appeared disturbed not for her health condition but for her mother's plight. The child requested us to console the mother," he said.

The girl requested Mr Gandhi to touch her hands and console her mother, hospital staff told the media.