Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Najib Tun Razak Thursday met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. It was his last engagement in the Indian capital before he left for Chennai.

This is perhaps for the first time a visiting head of government is having a separate meeting with the Gandhi scion.

The meeting, according to sources, was sought by the Malaysian prime minister to establish links with Rahul Gandhi, widely seen as a rising Congress leader and often mentioned as a potential prime minister of the country.

Razak Wednesday met the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi’s mother, before he held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Razak, who arrived here on a five-day visit Tuesday, is likely to meet Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai.

He will also interact with industrialists and Malaysian entrepreneurs who have made Tamil Nadu their business hub in India. Around 1.9 million people of Indian origin live in Malaysia — and most of them are from Tamil Nadu.