New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has raised the banner of revolt against Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, met former party chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday evening soon after meeting party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The meeting lasted for an hour but Sidhu, who had tweeted his photo with Priyanka Gandhi, was tight-lipped about what transpired, and neither did the Congress make an official statement. Sources, however, that a solution is being worked on to defuse the tension between the two factions.
Ahead of the meeting with Sidhu, Rahul Gandhi had met Priyanka Gandhi and party chief Sonia Gandhi.
The cricketer-turned-politician's meeting with Rahul Gandhi came a day after the former party chief had said that no meeting was scheduled between him and Sidhu.
On Tuesday afternoon, Rahul Gandhi stepped outside his house to talk to reporters but when he was asked about meeting Sidhu, he seemed to rule it out. "No meeting," he had said.
Last week, Punjab Congress President Sunil Jakhar, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and MPs Pratap Singh Bajwa and Manish Tewari had met Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the situation after infighting escalated in the state unit.
The step was taken after Mika's performance at an event in Pakistan amid spiralling diplomatic uncertainty between the neighbours after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Though living in 'forced exile' within their own state for over three decades now, the longing to return to their homeland in the turmoil-hit Kashmir Valley has not waned among a majority of the Kashmiri Pandits in this Hindu-dominated town.
Now with the scrapping of Article 370 and 35A, which prevented them to settle permanently and own property, will automatically become the residents of this state.
An account of a fortnight-old encounter that brought two siblings face-to-face during an anti-Maoist operation has come to light now. The cop brother and his Maoist sister exchanged fire before the latter escaped into the forests of the Maoist affected Sukma region in Chhatisgarh.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will lead a delegation of the Ravidas community to meet the Prime Minister for the resolution of the crisis triggered by the demolition of their historic temple in Delhi's Tughlakabad area.
