Jakhar accompanies Rahul, Priyanka to Delhi

Former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday accompanied party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a flight to Delhi, said party sources on Wednesday.

Rahul and Priyanka returned from Shimla and they took a flight to Delhi from Chandigarh airport on Wednesday evening, said party sources.

Jakhar accompanied them on the flight, they further said.

The former state Congress chief on Monday had questioned the AICC general secretary Harish Rawat's reported statement that the upcoming elections would be fought under the leadership of Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Jakhar was the frontrunner for the post of leader of the Punjab Congress Legislative Party but later the party high command chose Charanjit Singh Channi, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet expansion of the Channi-led Cabinet was on the cards.

Channi, his two deputies Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and OP Soni and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday had gone to the national capital to discuss the expansion of the new Cabinet with the party's central leadership.

The team had met AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and AICC general secretary and Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Rawat.

The Cabinet is likely to see some fresh faces, said sources.

The names of Pargat Singh, Raj Kumar Verka, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Surjit Dhiman, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Kuljit Singh Nagra were doing the rounds for induction in the Channi’s Cabinet.

Pargat Singh, considered close to Sidhu, is at present the Punjab Congress general secretary and Gilzian is a working president of the party's state unit.

There is speculation that Amarinder Singh's staunch loyalists --Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, who was the sports minister and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who was the social justice empowerment minister, may be dropped.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)