Rahul Gandhi gets holiday rap

New Delhi: Back after his foreign visit, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi held a series of meetings with senior leaders of the Con-gress. The first one to arrive was Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka. Political secretary to the Congress president Ahm-ed Patel were amongst the first ones to arrive. Rahul came under severe criticism as he had taken off just before the New Year. In 2015, Rahul had taken a 56-day long sabbatical.

Punjab Congress chief Capt. Amarinder Singh also visited Rahul to discuss the list of probable candidates for the upcoming elections. On Tuesday evening, the central election committee of the Congress also met to finalise the final list of candidates in Punjab. The nominations are to begin Wednesday onwards. Capt. Amarinder said that cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu will be joining the Congress in a day or two and the party has already offered the Amritsar-East seat either to him or his wife, who is currently the MLA there. “Since nominations have to be filed soon, Mr Sidhu has to join the Congress sooner than later,” he added

The central election committee is expected to meet later this week also to finalise the seats for other poll-going states Goa, Uttarakhand and the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh. Also, since Rahul is back, the final call on the proposed alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party is also needed to be taken.

The Congress is organising a one-day Jan Vedna Diwas on Wednesday to highlight the plight of the common man post demonetisation, for which Congress delegates from across the country will gather at the Talkatora Stadium. Rahul Gandhi will also be addressing the gathering. The Congress has planned a month-long agitation across the country against demonetisation. All state unit chiefs of the Congress will also be present on Wenesday. The Congress has already held several programmes all across the country. Senior congress leaders have addressed various press conferences and public meetings across the country.

Rahul is expected to leave for China on January 15 on the invitation of the Communist Party of China. However, communications in-charge of the Congress Randeep Surjewala said that nothing has been finalised as yet.