Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Manoj Sonkar on Tuesday defeated Aam Aadmi Party's Kuldeep Kumar to win the post of mayor in the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
The Punjab government has ordered the closure of schools till July 13 while in Chandigarh schools are closed till Thursday.
Chidambaram also stressed that there were lessons to be learnt by the Congress from the Gujarat loss, saying there is no such thing as a "silent" campaign in a hard-fought election.
The row erupted after Purohit wrote a letter to Mann asking for details on the selection of government school principals sent to Singapore for a training seminar, saying he has received complaints of "malpractices and illegalities".
Hundreds of members of the Aam Aadmi Party, including office-bearers, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat at the party headquarters in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, days ahead of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and newly-appointed Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann's visit to Ahmedabad where a roadshow is planned.
The chief minister said his "fault" was providing good education to children, building good schools for them, opening Mohalla Clinics and arranging for free medicines for people.
Kamaljeet, who is now back in her native place Barkandi village in Bathinda, and her father Sikandar Singh, explained their week-long ordeal and how travel and placement agents in Punjab are bleeding poor families financially with a promise of a better future.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has unfurled a 'new anti-mafia era in Punjab' and hoped he would rise to the expectations of the people.
As many as eight exit polls -- ABP News-CVoter, ETG Research, India Today- Axis My India, India TV-CNX, Zee News-DESIGNBOXED, India News, News 24 Today's Chanakya and Republic P-MARQ -- predicted 240-plus seats for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, earmarking an average seat of the party with its allies in the state at 241 out of the total of 403 seats.
Kejriwal said the previous Congress government was called "20 per cent commission government" and the current Bharatiya Janata Party government "40 per cent commission government."
She alleged that the ED has become a "political tool" of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The AAP will contest all the 90 assembly seats in Haryana on its own, but the Lok Sabha polls will be fought as part of the INDIA bloc, Kejriwal said.
'My names is Arvind Kejriwal and I am not a terrorist' is the Delhi chief minister's message for the countrymen from Tihar jail, Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh said Tuesday, slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party for the treatment being meted out to him in custody.
Sidhu attacked the Aam Aadmi Party, alleging that the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi had last year notified one of the farm laws even when farmers were sitting at the borders of national capital protesting against the legislations.
Without naming any party, Prasad said he thought cut and commission was the legacy of only one political party.
'Whosoever speaks against the AAP supremo would be termed the biggest terrorist'
The other main contender for the party's CM face was Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, a Jat Sikh face.
The 'deliberate attack' on a Hindu temple in Canada sparked strong condemnation in India on Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the Canadian government to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of offering money to its municipal councillors and said it will install CCTV cameras at their homes to prevent any poaching attempt.
In Punjab, more than 9,000 people were evacuated in Patiala, Rupnagar, Moga, Ludhiana, Mohali, SBS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib districts, officials said on Tuesday.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that he would resign after two days and sought early polls in the national capital while vowing not to sit in the chief minister's chair till people give him a 'certificate of honesty'.
Chadha had challenged the trial court's October 5 order which vacated the April order.
Dividing people in the name of religion, engineering riots and committing atrocities on Dalits is not Hindutva but to unite one human being with another is, he said in a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party while replying to a question at a summit organised by news channel Times Now.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
Mann said he took the decision after learning that the minister was allegedly demanding one percent commission for tenders.
The top court said the exclusion of a member of the Opposition from the House just because of a perspective which may not be consistent with the viewpoint of the government is a serious issue.
'Kejriwal could have easily deputed someone to step in as chief minister, but being the authoritative and self-centered personality that he is, he chose not to do it.' 'If the AAP loses Delhi, where it has a huge majority, the only one to blame would be Kejriwal,' asserts Ramesh Menon.
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
Nine people from Himachal Pradesh, including a key Hindu Raksha Mahasabha functionary, three former armed forces personnel and two retired officers of the state administrative service, joined the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday.
Taking note of a plea of an Aam Aadmi Party councillor alleging wrongdoing in the polls, the court issued notices to the Chandigarh authorities, including the civic body.
The AAP leader did not clarify whether 300 units of free electricity will be given per month as Punjab has a two-month billing cycle.
The announcement was made in advertisements published by the state's information and public relations department in various newspapers on Saturday.
The Punjab police arrested Jasvir Singh after the incident and booked him for hurting religious sentiments and attempt to murder.
The activists of the BJYM, led by its president Tejasvi Surya, staged a protest near Kejriwal's residence at Civil Lines in Delhi, demanding an apology from him for allegedly mocking Kashmiri Pandits, with the AAP alleging vandalism during the demonstration.
The Congress is banking on decisions like reducing electricity tariff and fuel prices, taken during current CM Charanjit Singh Channi's 111-day tenure.
The Delhi chief minister also asked people to vote in the coming Lok Sabha polls to elect an MP, not the prime minister, saying the MP would "work for you during tough times".
The Shiromani Akali Dal-Sanyukt will contest on 17 seats.
Long caught between two polarities, Gujarat's electoral field has expanded to include a third party with the Aam Aadmi Party challenging the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as well as the opposition Congress that has lost ground but still has significant presence.
'AAP is more acceptable to sections of the middle class because it has pragmatically tried to accommodate Hindu sensibilities.'
The ruling Congress on Wednesday swept the urban body polls in Punjab, winning six municipal corporations, emerging as the largest party in the seventh and bagging most of the 109 municipal council and nagar panchayats.
