Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, stated on Tuesday that he had no plans to meet with Navjot Singh Sidhu, a disgruntled party leader from Punjab.
On Monday, Sidhu’s camp claimed he’d meet with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi today.
“There will be no meeting with Sidhu (Navjot Singh Sidhu),” Rahul stated as he left his home for Sonia Gandhi’s apartment this evening.
The cricketer-turned-politician allegedly left his Patiala home early today to meet with senior Congress leaders in Delhi, despite the party’s Punjab unit’s continuing factionalism dispute.
In recent weeks, Rahul has met with party officials from Punjab to discuss the state’s political situation, including the restructure of the party’s state unit and the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle before the Assembly elections next year.
So far, Brahm Mohindra, Vijay Inder Singla, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Shamsher Singh Dullo, MLA Lakhvir Singh Lakha, state Congress head Sunil Jakhar, and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa have met with the former Congress president.
Sidhu, who resigned as a Punjab minister in 2019 after his portfolio was shifted, has openly attacked Chief Minister Amarinder Singh once again. He recently went after the CM for what he claims is a delay in justice in the 2015 sacrilege events and consequent police firings.
A three-member AICC panel formed to defuse the ongoing infighting has endorsed Singh’s name for the party’s Chief Minister’s candidate for the Assembly election and suggested that Sidhu may be suitably accommodated. Sidhu, who resigned as a Punjab minister in 2019 after his portfolio was shifted, has openly attacked Chief Minister Amarinder Singh once again. He recently went after the CM for what he claims is a delay in justice in the 2015 sacrilege events and consequent police firings.
The Congress central leadership, which is having frantic meetings to calm factionalism, is mulling appointing Sidhu as deputy chief minister. However, the dissatisfied politician has stated that he would not return to Singh’s cabinet or accept any job in his administration.
