Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked party leaders from Himachal Pradesh to put up a united front and help the party regain power in the state.
Gandhi had convened the meeting of senior party leaders from Himachal Pradesh at her residence here in the run up to assembly elections which are due in the state early next year.
Among the Congress leaders who attended the meeting were Union Ministers Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma, PCC chief Kaul Singh and former PCC presidents Vidya Stokes and Viplove Thakur.
The Congress president asked the party leaders to end factionalism in the state unit and rise above personal differences to ensure Congress' victory at the hustings.
Congress in HP is faction-ridden with different leaders projecting themselves as being in the race for chief ministership.
A section of Himachal Congress had cautioned against factionalism in the party's state unit and recently petitioned Gandhi to unite the top brass, citing the party's defeat in assembly elections in adjacent Punjab.
Gandhi asked the leaders to work out a joint strategy and move together without criticising each other.
Some leaders from the state had raised objections to former chief minister Virbhadra Singh holding rallies in various parts of the state without involving the state Congress or senior party leaders from the state.
Sources said Gandhi did not stop Singh from holding such rallies but asked him to take other leaders along and unitedly fight the Bharatiya Janata Party.
