Navjot Sidhu For Punjab Congress Boss? Gandhis' Formula Sparks Debate

Sulking Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu may share the job of party chief in Punjab with another leader as part of a formula to defuse intense infighting that has endangered the party's campaign for state polls next year. A rejig of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's cabinet is also likely soon.

But sources say Rahul Gandhi has yet to endorse the plan that has his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's approval.

After Rahul Gandhi's perceived snub to Navjot Sidhu on Tuesday, it was Priyanka Gandhi's intervention that enabled a meeting between the two on Wednesday.

"Navjot Sidhu's meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi is a good sign, and this will help resolve the issue. I think there could be a resolution soon," Harish Rawat, Congress in-charge of Punjab, told ANI.

While Priyanka Gandhi was projected by some Congress leaders as troubleshooter, sources say thef party is divided on the benefits of the Gandhis' role in tackling the Punjab crisis.

Congress leaders, especially in Punjab, feel that placating Navjot Sidhu may not be the best route to take. Some even say it will cost the party dearly in Punjab, which will vote for a new government next year.

Mr Sidhu, who has been pummeling Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh with accusations over the past few months, arrived in Delhi on Tuesday to meet with the Gandhis, as his team claimed.

But Rahul Gandhi denied any meeting with the cricketer-turned-politician, raising questions.

On Wednesday, Mr Sidhu tweeted a photo with Priyanka Gandhi after a meeting that reportedly lasted three hours.

Later in the evening, reports emerged that he was meeting with Rahul Gandhi as well. News agency ANI quoted sources as saying it was a 45-minute "meeting of reconciliation".

The sources also said Priyanka Gandhi "took the initiative and convinced Rahul Gandhi" to meet Mr Sidhu.

Reports said she went to Rahul Gandhi's home and met with her brother as well as mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Mr Sidhu waited at her residence until she returned, said ANI.

Finally, Mr Sidhu got his meeting with the Gandhis and was seen to score over Amarinder Singh, who visited Delhi last week but left without meeting any of them.

Amarinder Singh and Mr Sidhu both had meetings with the three-member panel set up by Sonia Gandhi to consult Punjab Congress leaders and recommend a solution. "He (Sidhu) thinks he is above any of us and has direct access to the Gandhis," said one of the panel members.

The Gandhis, say sources, are seen as cosseting a leader who is rated a "non-performer" by his boss (the Chief Minister) and who has latched on to the cause of leaders upset with the Punjab government over a legal setback in a 2015 case involving the desecration of the Sikh religious text Guru Granth Sahib and police firing during protests linked to it.

Mr Sidhu, the Congress's star campaigner in the 2017 Punjab polls, became a minister in the Amarinder Singh government but quit two years later after his ministry was downgraded.

"He was given a lighter ministry because he refused to take important decisions," said sources close to the Chief Minister, denying that he was shafted.

After prolonged silence and detachment from party affairs, Mr Sidhu started targeting Amarinder Singh once again in recent months, becoming a problem the party would find hard to ignore in the run-up to the Punjab polls.

Sources say the party is divided over the role of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in the Punjab crisis.

Unlike Sonia Gandhi, who had experienced leaders like Ahmed Patel (who died last year) and Ambika Soni to handle the troubleshooting, the siblings don't have anyone to handle the nuts and bolts of hard negotiations, sources say.

"They should have been connecting with other people in Punjab instead of only Sidhu. He is a liability but they feel they cannot afford to have someone like him embarrassing the party relentlessly in an election year," said a party leader.