Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and senior leader Sunil Jakhar met with former party president Rahul Gandhi at his Delhi residence on Wednesday.
The Congress fielded Channi from two seats -- Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar and Bhadaur in Barnala, a move which showed how much the Congress was banking on him. He lost both, and the party received a drubbing from the AAP.
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Sushil Rinku on Saturday won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election, defeating his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by a margin of 58,691 votes.
'He was a cricketer who come once in a lifetime...'
Ganguly was nominated to the seat vacated by Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Rahul is visiting the poll-bound state for the first time after the election dates were announced on January 8 by the Election Commission of India.
WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh urged that the national championships and camps should be conducted as all activities have come to a standstill.
For the last several weeks, both Channi and Sidhu have, directly or indirectly, made a case to be declared as the party's nominee for the top post.
Sidhu backed his wife saying 'she would never lie', while the CM said she refused to contest from Amritsar.
'He is worried about how best the Punjab crisis can be resolved.'
Some media reports claimed he may meet some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Delhi after which Amarinder Singh's media advisor Raveen Thukral sought to clarify the reason for his visit.
"Hindustan jeevay, Pakistan jeevay," he chanted while reading a verse.
Today six months and one day have passed. Where is the chargesheet," Sidhu asked.
It will be for the first time in three decades that the Badal family will have no representation in the 117-member Punjab assembly.
He had along with three other ministers rebelled against Amarinder Singh while choosing to side with the camp of state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
In a major fillip to the Congress in poll-bound Punjab, former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur on Monday joined the party along with former Akali MLA Pargat Singh.
The party wants to give time to Sidhu, but if he does not agree, then strict steps can be taken, the sources said.
Sidhu was the Congress' star campaigner and addressed over 70 public meetings in 17 days ahead of elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.
Will India extend their run to make it 8-0? Or will Pakistan be able to snap the streak?
The chief minister said that the Congress will surely take action against Sidhu for his alleged remarks as the party does not believe in indiscipline.
'People in Punjab put their opinion very strongly there and it looks like they will fight. But, there is nothing like that, and they find solutions to their problems'
Making the announcement at a press conference in Chandigarh, Sidhu, however, said he will assume charge the day Punjab will get a new advocate general.
Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday once again trained his guns on former state chief minister Amarinder Singh, calling him a 'fraud,' 'coward' and a 'crybaby.'
Rahul Gandhi had earlier talked to the MLAs over the phone ahead of the meeting of the AICC panel on Punjab.
Navjot Sidhu's life inside jail wouldn't be ten percent as hard as that of an ordinary convict who is in jail for assault leading to unintentional death, argues Sudhir Bisht.
Unemployment, delivery of justice in desecration cases, illegal sand mining and drug menace are likely to be key issues in the Punjab assembly elections.
The Charanjit Singh Channi-led government in Punjab on Thursday shunted Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan and appointed Anirudh Tewari in her place.
In a series of interviews, Capt Amarinder Singh said, "Priyanka and Rahul are like my children. This should not have ended like this. I am hurt."
Several Punjab Congress leaders, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, were on Thursday prevented from heading to Lakhimpur Kheri and were detained at a police station in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The state police have been looking for the Shiromani Akali Dal leader to arrest him.
His tweet pressing the Charanjit Singh Channi-led government to change the director general of police and state's advocate general appears to indicate that he continues to remain unhappy over certain key appointments.
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.
'If the Congress wants to keep the ship afloat, it will have to bury the differences.'
Voting for 117 assembly seats in Punjab and 59 assembly constituencies spread across 16 districts of Uttar Pradesh were held on Sunday.
Sidhu, who had been at loggerheads with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, had stayed away from all Congress activities ever since he resigned as cabinet minister last year.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday sought to scotch "rumours" on Navjot Singh Sidhu's possible induction in Aam Aadmi Party, saying the cricketer-turned-politician has not put any pre-condition and just needs "time to think".
Sidhu has accepted the invitation and informed the Union Home Ministry and the office of the Punjab Chief Minister about his intention to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Asking that if all these leaders and actors accompanying the Pakistani journalists are Inter-Services Intelligence's contacts, Singh asserted that he would have invited her again had there been no visa restrictions between India and Pakistan.
In its first list of 86 candidates, the Congress on Saturday gave the ticket to party MLA Gurpreet Singh GP from Bassi Pathana (SC) seat.
A day after Punjab Advocate General A P S Deol accused Navjot Singh Sidhu of spreading misinformation and obstructing him, the state Congress chief on Sunday hit back, alleging that the AG's 'earnest inaction' was subverting justice in the sacrilege and drug cases.
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