Poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday met former Congress president Rahul Gandhi at his national Capital residence. This fuelled speculation about some possible moves to consolidate the Opposition ranks ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat and then seek a way forward for the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
AICC sources said senior party leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal, and Harish Rawat, the in-charge of Punjab affairs, were present during the meeting.
While it was not clear what the meeting was about, it came against the backdrop of infighting and turmoil in the Congress unit in Punjab. The crisis has intensified in recent months and with Assembly elections scheduled for early next year, leaders in the party have been getting restless over the delay in its resolution.
Meanwhile, Rawat informed the media that Prashant and Rahul meeting was not regarding Punjab crisis but it was just a courtesy visit where it was discussed current socio-economic and political condition of the country.
"Rahul is a national leader. Many leaders meet him and convey their views. Prashant didn't meet him to negotiate something regarding Punjab," said Rawat also mentioning that during the next couple of days some good news will come from Punjab indicating that the Congress has finally chalked out a strategy to finally resolve the party's Punjab crisis.
Last week, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had met Kishor at Kapurthala House, the CM's residence in the national Capital. Kishor is principal adviser of the Punjab Government. Earlier, reports from Chandigarh said the Rahul-Kishor meeting was expected to be the last round of discussions to give the final shape to the changes in the Punjab party unit.
"Good news for the Punjab Congress in next three-four days," said Rawat after the meeting.
Notably, Rawat has already made it clear that Punjab will get a new PPCC chief and there will be a few new faces in the Cabinet of Captain Amarinder Singh.
Even as there is no confirmation regarding what actually transpired in the meeting, it is believed that the top leaders discussed Punjab affairs. It is believed that the leaders discussed possible changes and formulations expected to be taken to resolve the prevailing conflict with Punjab Congress unit.
It is believed that in the two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting, a strategy was devised to end the prolonged infighting between Captain Amarinder Singh and his bête noire Navjot Sidhu.
