Rawat & team in Chandigarh today for meet as Punjab Congress continues to boil

Rawat will be accompanied by Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary for a meeting of the Congress legislature party to be held in Chandigarh. All MLAs have been asked to attend the same.

Harish Rawat, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Punjab’s affairs, will reach Chandigarh on Saturday along with party colleagues Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary to hold a meeting of the Congress legislature party (CLP) as requested by a “large number of MLAs”.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat is the in-charge of Congress affairs in Punjab. (HT Photo)

Maken and Chaudhary have been appointed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi as observers of the party’s affairs in Punjab where factionalism and power tussle between chief minister Amarinder Singh and the party’s newly made state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu refuse to die down.

Late on Friday night, Rawat wrote on Twitter, “The AICC has received a representation from a large number of party MLAs, requesting to immediately convene a meeting of the legislature party of Punjab.”

The CLP meeting is scheduled to be held at the Punjab Congress office in the state capital at 5pm and all legislators have been asked to attend the same.

In another post, the former Uttarakhand chief minister tagged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, besides Singh and Sidhu and wrote, “AICC directs the PPCC to facilitate this meeting.”

The development came as several legislators and ministers close to Sidhu have been seeking a meeting of the legislature party.

Last month, four ministers and around two dozen party MLAs had raised a banner of revolt against the CM stating they had no faith in Singh's ability to honour unfulfilled promises.

Punjab is among the last remaining three Congress-ruled states, the other two being Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The grand old party is struggling with factionalism and power-sharing issues in all the three states. Election is due next year in Punjab and the party high command is making all efforts to bring the rift within control.