Being released from Tihar jail after 50 days on a 21-day interim bail granted by the Supreme Court, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal received a warm welcome from his family when he reached his residence on Friday evening.
The Delhi government will not be run from jail, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena said on Wednesday in the backdrop of statements by Aam Aadmi Party leaders that Arvind Kejriwal will continue as chief minister even if he is behind bars.
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said he will be surrendering on June 2 and asserted that he will not bow down even if he is harassed in jail.
Kejriwal said his government has done a number of good works like providing free electricity and water, and asked Delhiites to urge voters in poll-bound Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand to give a chance to the AAP.
Singh, who got bail in the alleged excise policy scam from the Supreme Court on Tuesday, also asked the BJP if the prime minister will join the probe if police from the opposition-ruled Bengal, Punjab and Tamil Nadu knocked at his doors.
The Aam Aadmi Party claimed on Wednesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party has approached four of its legislators in Delhi, asking them to switch sides and join the saffron party or else, face 'false cases, the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate)'.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Aam Aadmi Party communication in-charge Vijay Nair and businessman Abhishek Boinpally in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe into the Delhi Excise policy that was scraped following corruption allegations, official sources said Monday.
At many places, where the voters had entered booths before 6 pm and were standing in queues, they were allowed to cast their votes.
Modi brought up the emotive issue of the gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib, a place sacred to Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life there, and blamed the Congress for country's partition, saying they did it for sake of power.
In its first decision, the Punjab cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday approved filling up 25,000 vacant posts in various state departments, including 10,000 in the police force.
The projectile, fired by some unidentified people, hit the Saanjh Kendra adjoining the Sarhali police station on the Amritsar-Bathinda highway on Friday night.
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal is unlikely to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy, sources in the party said.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in connection with a money laundering case, officials said.
The AAP national convenor is out on an interim bail till June 1. He has to surrender on June 2.
Polling was held for over hundred civic bodies in Punjab on Sunday amid stray incidents of skirmishes at some places.
The biggest winner will be the BJP -- which has such a small presence that every incremental vote it gets can only increase its strength. But the man who will win despite losing everything will be Captain Amarinder Singh, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Kejriwal urged AAP members to strengthen the party at grassroots level.
The Delhi BJP, on the other hand, alleged that one Amrik Singh Micky, who was present at the Red Fort and later posted his picture with provocative slogan in Facebook, was an AAP leader.
Pardeep Singh was shot in his dairy shop at around 7 am in Kotkapura in Faridkot, the police said, adding that his security man and another person sustained bullet injuries in the incident.
The AAP bagged 20 seats in Punjab while losing all seats in Goa
'Each of us will have a beautiful story to tell about him because he went beyond work and touched our lives. That's a rarity in this industry.'
Controversial Punjabi singer Sidhu Mussewala, who joined the Congress sometime ago will contest from Mansa and actor Sonu Sood's sister Malvika Sood from Moga.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded two Congress turncoats and its former Union minister Vijay Sampla for next month's Punjab assembly polls as it released its second list of 27 candidates on Thursday.
The swearing-in ceremony of the Mann's cabinet will be held at Punjab Raj Bhawan at 11 am, officials said.
Failing to get any reprieve from the Delhi high court, the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will move the Supreme Court soon against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and maintained the excise policy case was the 'biggest political conspiracy of the country' to finish the party.
Khetan, who did not deny the resignation, said he was not involved in "active politics at the moment" and was not interested in rumours.
Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
While the Gandhi siblings have had their way with Amarinder Singh's ouster, the future of the party under the temperamental Navjot Sidhu's leadership is uncertain, reports Sai Manish.
Punjab's voters are dissatisfied with the Akali Dal-BJP ruling combine. The Congress does not have a strong agenda on which to fight the 2017 assembly polls -- fertile ground for the AAP to step in.
Should the party expand to Punjab, Bihar and other places, or should it consolidate its gains in Delhi? This was one of the questions before the party when it split sometime back. An answer is yet to emerge.
'He is worried about how best the Punjab crisis can be resolved.'
AAP's presence in both states has complicated the contests for the BJP and its Congress rival.
Projecting itself as the lone alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday launched a nationwide survey seeking people's opinion on the two parties.
Sources in the AAP claimed that the chief minister was 'extremely displeased' with Gautam.
Sidhu, who had been attacking the AAP-led government in the state over various issues including the law and order situation, said Punjab's resurrection was possible only with a collective effort.
Punjab faces many mortal threats. For most of these the people of Punjab are themselves responsible. And unless they take a brutal hard look within, their future generations have to be resigned to continue living with this constant slide, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has claimed that Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had approached him once expressing his readiness to join the party.
The Congress high command has so far maintained that the party will fight the February 20 elections to the 117-member assembly under a "collective leadership"
Three of the 23 MLAs are cabinet ministers. Another minister who had tested positive earlier has recovered. The chief minister gave the number during a video conference with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had held a virtual meeting with CMs of opposition-ruled states to discuss a range of issues faced by them.
