Sonia Gandhi meets Punjab Chief Minister, lays emphasis on cohesive working of party, government in state

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday and apprised her of the progress on the 18-point agenda worked out by central leadership for his government in the state, which will face elections early next year.

Congress chief is learnt to have advised the Chief Minister that he and the new state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu need to work with unity and cohesion, stating that both the government and the organisation should work together by staying within their limits.

Party leader Harish Rawat, who is AICC in-charge of Punjab, toldthat he has been given the responsibility that both the "government and organisation help each other.

"I believe that Congress chief has advised that the state government and the party have to work together and both of them have to work within their respective limits but by cooperating with each other," he said.

Rawat said the Chief Minister apprised the Congress chief of the progress and difficulties in terms of governance and politics ahead of the assembly polls and briefed her about the steps being taken by him to tackle them.

He said Sonia Gandhi was satisfied with the steps being taken by the Punjab Chief Minister to handle the issues.

"In our last meeting with Captain Amrinder Singh, some points were given to him. Today, he spoke to Soniaji and briefed the Congress president about progress and difficulties. Punjab will go to elections in the coming months. Naturally, we need to monitor issues which we are facing now and to decide how to tackle them. Congress president is satisfied with the steps taken by him towards those issues," Rawat said.

Responding to a question on the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle in the state, Rawat said that no such decision has been taken yet by the party leadership.

However, he said that there was discussion about representation to the Dalit community.

The Chief Minister reached Delhi this morning to meet Sonia Gandhi. The meeting, held at the residence of the Congress president, lasted almost an hour. Harish Rawat was also present at the meeting.

The meeting came in the backdrop of Sidhu taking a dig at the Amarinder Singh government on Monday on the issue of tackling the drug menace.

Sidhu, who had made a series of tweets, said he would bring a resolution in the state assembly to make STF report on drugs public if the state government does not do so.

Raveen Thukral, Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, said in a tweet that Chief Minister discussed various state-related issues with the Congress chief and "spent an extremely satisfying one hour with her".

( With inputs from ANI )

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