Navjot Singh Sidhu to meet Rahul, Priyanka on Tuesday

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 28

Senior Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu will meet the Gandhis in Delhi on Tuesday—a development that comes as the central leadership in Delhi hears Punjab Congress leaders out over the growing friction in the state unit.

Sidhu will meet senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in New Delhi on Tuesday. Sidhu’s office has confirmed the meeting.

Sources said after deliberation with state party leaders, Rahul Gandhi is expected to discuss with Sidhu the emerging scenario in Punjab, in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly elections. Sources did not rule out Gandhi’s discussing with Sidhu, the role (s) to be offered to him.

The Chief Minister during his last meeting with Kharge panel is learnt to given options for adjustment of Sidhu in the party. Officially, there is no word yet from the Chief Minister on it. In the coming days, the parry top leadership could again meet the Chief Minister before taking the final call on the way forward.

This comes after meetings between Rahul Gandhi and several ministers and senior leaders of the party’s Punjab unit amid reports of festering factionalism with the state unit.  Primary among dissidents in the state unit is Navjot Singh Sidhu, a former cricketer-turned-politician who has long had a political rivalry with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

The friction within the Punjab unit comes less than a year before Punjab heads into Assembly elections.