E-Paper
Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu meets Priyanka Gandhi
Sidhu called on Priyanka a day after her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi denied any meeting with the Punjab MLA
A day after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi declined plans of meeting Navjot Singh Sidhu in New Delhi, the Punjab MLA tweeted a photo with party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and declared the two had a “long meeting”.
Though the former Punjab minister’s office claimed that Sidhu had been called to Delhi for a meeting with Rahul, sources said no meeting was fixed between Rahul and Sidhu.
Also read: No meeting was scheduled with Sidhu, says Rahul Gandhi
Rahul, the former Congress president, said on Tuesday, “There is no meeting. I don’t know what fuss you are making.” He made the remark while leaving his Tughlaq Lane residence in Delhi.
However, the party sources said that there was speculation that Sidhu, who was camping in the national capital, may meet Rahul and Priyanka soon. The two siblings are trying to bring all Congress leaders, including Sidhu, on a common platform and present a united Congress ahead of the elections early next year.
Quelling infighting in Punjab Congress
Rahul has been meeting leaders from Punjab over the past few days amid the infighting in the state Congress and ahead of a revamp of the party and the state cabinet.
The Congress leadership is all set for a revamp of the state unit ahead of the assembly elections.
Rahul Gandhi has met ministers, MLAs and MPs, including Brahm Mohindra, Vijay Inder Singla, Balbir Singh Sidhu and Rajya Sabha member Shamsher Singh Dullo and MLA Lakhvir Singh Lakha.
He has already met state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and Rajya Sabha member and former Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa.
At loggerheads with Punjab CM
Sidhu, who had resigned from the Punjab cabinet after he was divested of the local bodies portfolio in 2019, has been at loggerheads with chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He has attacked the chief minister over the alleged delay in justice in the 2015 incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing.
Singh had slammed Sidhu for continuously attacking him over the sacrilege issue and termed the former’s outbursts “total indiscipline”.
Early this month, Sidhu appeared before a three-member panel set up by the Congress to resolve the infighting within the party’s state unit.
On June 22, Capt Amarinder Singh appeared before the panel, headed by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, in Delhi. However, he returned to Chandigarh without an audience with party president Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat and former MP J P Aggarwal are members of the panel. (With PTI inputs)
