Ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s proposed Punjab visit later this month, the party leadership on Thursday began the exercise to end the prolonged factional tussle in the state unit.AICC General Secretary (Punjab Affairs) Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab Congress Chief Amrinder Raja Warring and CLP Leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday attended a meeting in Delhi. However, senior leaders including former CM and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa, who are opposed to Warring’s leadership of the state unit, were not invited to the meeting. The party leadership will hold separate talks with these leaders as part of continued efforts to address factionalism.Bhagel later met Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss ways to end the current stalemate. AICC General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, who is monitoring the efforts to bring the warring leaders together, is also learnt to have been briefed. Sources privy to the development said party leaders were waiting for the final nod from Gandhi before announcing some tough political and organisational decisions soon.The exercise assumes significance as the Congress wants to put its Punjab house before Gandhi embarks on a proposed bus yatra across the state, likely after September 15.The Congress is also looking to use the yatra as more than a public outreach exercise. Sources said the leadership sees it as an opportunity to re-energise the organisation, mobilise workers and bring the party’s different power centres together.In the last two days, Bajwa and Jalandhar MLA Pargat Singh are learnt to have met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Venugopal and Baghel. Sources said the party could assign responsibilities to different leaders and working out a mechanism for greater coordination between the state’s senior leadership in the coming days.