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 worst clash in decades saw 20 Indian soldiers killed in the India China border conflict. Darpan brings you some of the latest developments in this ongoing story.
According to Indian officials, at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese forces in a disputed Himalayan border area. The incident follows rising tensions, and is the first deadly clash in the border area in at least over 4 decades. The Indian army initially said three of its soldiers had been killed, adding that both sides suffered casualties.
India and Australia penned a landmark agreement for reciprocal access to military bases for logistics support besides firming up six more pacts to further broaden ties after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart PM Scott Morrison held an online summit.
Siddharta Vashishtha, also known as Manu Sharma, the convict in the Jessica Lal murder case was released from Tihar Jail on Tuesday. Sandeep Goel, Director-General of Tihar Jail, said: “He was released on the recommendations of the Sentence Reviewing Board meeting. The entire process has been carried out.”
A swarm of locusts on Wednesday and Thursday devastated crops in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadhra district, which shares borders with Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The pest has damaged crops in six states, leading to the Centre issuing a locust warning to 16 states.
