Amarinder meets Sonia

Amid talks of a change of guard in the Punjab Congress leadership, former chief minister Amarinder Singh today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi here.
The meeting which lasted for over an hour took place soon after PCC chief Pratap Singh Bajwa, a known detractor of Amarinder, met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The hectic consultations indicated that the Congress high command is keen to put its state unit in order to take on the SAD-BJP combine in the next assembly polls slated in early 2017.
While neither Amarinder or Bajwa was available for comments, sources said both discussed the issue of leadership in the state unit.

The meeting also comes at a time when various factions of Congress leaders have launched separate agitations against the ruling government there.
Certain names have been doing the rounds ever since talks of leadership change in the Punjab PCC, though the hunt for a "consensus" candidate is not over.

Among the names being talked about include senior Congress leader Ambika Soni, state leader Lal Singh and party MP Ravneet Singh Bittu.
Congress has been a divided house with Bajwa, Amarinder and other leaders at loggerheads with each other for quite sometime.
Amarinder, who has been demanding Bajwa's ouster, has been seeking to install his man as the new PCC chief. His unhappiness has been reflected in the fact that he has not been participating Lok Sabha proceedings despite being made the party's deputy leader in the House.

Incidentally, senior Congress leader from the state Rajinder Kaur Bhattal also met Sonia sometime ago.
Congress has suffered two successive defeats at the hands of the ruling SAD-BJP combine and its leadership has turned restive and the state unit has been riddled with factionalism ever since it was ousted out of power.