Badal has been a constant in Punjab. Will his party survive the next Assembly elections? Aditi Phadnis examines
Sandeep Singh said he will now serve the country in politics after doing so as a sportsperson.
The Mayawati-led BSP will fight 20 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab, while the rest will be contested by the SAD.
"We did not find any sacrilege attempt or any evidence to back it. One person ran the gurdwara. This thing has moved to murder and inquiry is on," Channi said.
The Sikhs, especially in Punjab, are already angry and frustrated, cautions Shekhar Gupta.
The Punjab police on Tuesday arrested the ruling Shiromani Akal Dal leader and sarpanch who slapped a woman teacher at Gidderbaha in Muktsar district on Sunday. However, Balwinder Singh, the sarpanch, was freed on bail within hours of his arrest as the offences under Indian Penal Code for which he was booked by police were bailable.
If the protests have cemented the ties between the peasantry and the traders, the political implications for the BJP might become too serious to be disregarded because its core base was made up of the urban Khatri merchants.
The BJP said that the SAD had informed in advance that it will not attend the meeting.
The BJP Friday formally announced that it will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia was on Wednesday questioned for more than two hours by a special investigation team probing a drugs case registered against him.
Polling was held for over hundred civic bodies in Punjab on Sunday amid stray incidents of skirmishes at some places.
In a statement, Deol said Sidhu's 'repeated utterances seek to derail the earnest efforts of the state government to ensure justice in the drugs matter and the sacrilege cases'.
Pawar said Nitish took the decision anticipating the crisis the BJP was planning to bring on.
Celebrations broke out outside the Rajasthan BJP headquarters in Jaipur and the party workers burst firecrackers and distributed sweets as Murmu emerged victorious in the presidential poll.
Former Congress MLA from Barnala, Kewal Dhillon, and former Shiormani Akali Dal MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh also joined the BJP.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will not enter into any alliance for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls, party chief Mayawati said.
Jakhar, the former president of Punjab Congress, said the party had never named its CM face adding that it was only an exception that the Congress high command had declared Captain Amarinder Singh as the chief ministerial candidate in the run-up to the 2017 state assembly polls.
JD-U leaders contend that R C P Singh may have misled the BJP leadership into believing that Nitish Kumar was ready for a smaller share in power at the Centre.
Mann, 48, is a two-time MP from Sangrur and is the party's state unit chief.
Among these are Labh Singh Ugoke, who defeated former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in the Bhadaur assembly segment by a margin of 37,558 votes, and Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, who beat Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal in his traditional Lambi seat by 11,396 votes.
This came amid the buzz of an imminent reshuffle in the Union Cabinet.
Sidhu was in Patiala to take part in a protest against inflation when the Supreme Court verdict came in.
The announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to repeal the three contentious farm laws is expected to bring to an end the year-long confrontation between the government and the farmers, which has left more than 700 dead in its wake.
Both the BJP and the Congress have banked on new and young faces, some of whom have been nominated by the parties for the first time.
Regional films may have prevailed over the country, but regional leaders still have far mountains to climb to reach Delhi, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
In a relief toD leader Bikram Singh Majithia, the Supreme Court Monday directed the Punjab police not to arrest him till February 23 in a drugs case so he can undertake electioneering
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.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
The ruling BJP in Gujarat has decided to organise kabaddi and cricket tournaments that will have 'Article 370' in their names in Union Home Minister Amit Shah's Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, party office bearers said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Navjot Singh Sidhu again launched an attack on the former CM.
Apart from Chamkaur Sahib assembly seat which comes in Maajha region of Punjab, Congress is all set to field CM Channi from Adampur assembly constituency which falls in the Doaba Region.
'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
AAP will have to learn to be patient as such electoral changes do not happen in a hurry, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The chief minister pointed out that prompt action had been taken by the Punjab Police and the accused had been caught without delay, unlike in the Hathras incident. "That was why Rahul Gandhi had to rush to Hathras, to secure justice for the victim's family, and did not need to visit Hoshiarpur," he said.
Such is the situation of the government in Punjab, the prime minister said while hitting out the Congress, and asserted that he will come to Jalandhar again and pay obeisance at the Devi Talab Mandir.
"The decision of extending the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) from 15 km to 50 km by the Union Government is an expression of distrust towards the state Police and people of Punjab. This is their insult too," the resolution passed unanimously by the state Legislative Assembly stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Punjab visit was cut short on Wednesday after a "major security lapse" as he was stranded on a flyover for 20 minutes due to a blockade by protesters, prompting the Union Home Ministry to seek an immediate report from the state government and strict action against those responsible.
Punjab Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra has come under fire from several quarters after he was seen forcing the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) to lie on a dirty mattress at a hospital.
Nobody of consequence from the BJP condemned the lynchings. Nor have the Akalis. Nor has the Aam Aadmi Party. And nor, for that matter, have Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi who are now deeply immersed in Punjab politics, observes Vir Sanghvi.
The complaint was about movie stars apparently seen in a 'drugged' state in the video. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa had sent the video to NCB and his complaint was marked to the agency's Mumbai zonal unit, the official said.
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