After Congress president Sonia Gandhi met leaders of the G-23 grouping to resolve internal party issues, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday said "indulging the dissenters too much" will encourage more dissent.
The panel, chaired by Mallikarjun Kharge, has been tasked with addressing differences between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday skipped a meeting held by newly-appointed Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring with several party leaders from Amritsar.
A meeting of the Punjab Congress Legislative Party, which was slated for 11 am on Sunday, has been deferred, with party sources saying that a consensus is yet to be made on the name of the new CLP leader.
The top Congress leadership has not accepted Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation and adopting a wait and watch policy.
Kumar on Tuesday resigned from the Congress after a 46-year association, saying he can best serve national causes outside the party fold.
After the Opposition, now Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and two MLAs of the party have questioned their government's decision of giving jobs to sons of two legislators and urged Chief Minister Amarinder Sigh to roll back the 'ill-advised' move.
In a letter to Gandhi, Amarinder Singh is learnt to have mentioned that there could be an adverse impact on the party's prospects in the upcoming and crucial 2022 assembly polls by ignoring the old guard and other senior party leaders representing Hindu and Dalit communities, sources said.
Amarinder Singh on Monday held the Gandhis totally responsible for the rout of the Congress in the assembly polls, claiming that the party was "comfortably placed" in Punjab before he was unseated as chief minister.
The committee has given its recommendations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who will take necessary action, the sources pointed out.
Before hitting the campaign trail, Sunny Deol offered prayers at the Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak and also had a glimpse of historic Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal district of Pakistan through binoculars installed at the 'darshan sthal'.
A number of Congress workers were accompanying Gandhi from Punjab's Patiala district, but the procession was stopped on the highway near Teokar village on Pehowa border for an hour. Before Gandhi arrived at the Punjab-Haryana border, senior Haryana police officials at the spot told reporters that they would not allow more than 100 people to gather at one place as per the guidelines in place due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
Addressing a public meeting in Badhni Kalan in Punjab's Moga district, Gandhi asserted that the contentious Acts would be revoked if the Congress was voted to power.
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.
Sibal, whose exit from the Congress is another jolt for the electorally battered party, went to the Uttar Pradesh assembly premises to file his papers with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav and other senior leaders.
The cricketer-turned-politician thanked the party leadership for appointing him head of the Punjab unit and said he would work with every 'member of the Cong family' to fulfil the 'Jittega Punjab' mission and strengthen the party's organisation in the state.
The remarks came after the Channi government on Tuesday accepted the resignation of advocate general APS Deol, yielding to the pressure mounted by Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu for replacing the state's AG.
After taking charge at the state Congress headquarters, the cricketer-turned-politician said there was no difference between an ordinary worker of the party and its state unit chief.
'If you put your own party into the witness box, like what Sidhu did, and treat them as wrongdoers, then how will the people of Punjab trust the party?'
The decision was reached after an over two-hour meeting at the Punjab Congress Bhavan between chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Sidhu, who had resigned from the post of the state party chief on Tuesday.
Sidhu resigned as the PCC chief and sent his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday.
'Today, after mustering courage, I am resigning from the party post and primary membership of the Congress'
The Haryana Police closed the Ambala-Patiala highway after protesters gathered at the Shambhu border point with adjoining Punjab. The ruling Congress also held protests in Punjab, with the state unit chief Sunil Jakhar participating in one near the Shambhu border.
BJP plans to put up strong candidates against these 15 MPs.
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.
Strengthening the party's communication strategy to improve public engagement is foremost on the Congress agenda after Rahul Gandhi had stressed that they "have to go back to the people" at the Udaipur meeting.
Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a minister in the outgoing cabinet of Amarinder Singh whose name is doing the rounds among the probables to be the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Punjab, on Sunday asserted that he has never hankered after posts.
'Change was very much needed for the Congress to win the 2022 assembly elections.'
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"
Congress described the move as a 'betrayal' of the voters' mandate.
Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a minister in the outgoing cabinet of Amarinder Singh, is likely to be the state's new chief minister, Congress sources said on Sunday.
The other main contender for the party's CM face was Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, a Jat Sikh face.
'Why don't you resign from the Lok Sabha? Why does the Akali Dal party not withdraw support from the Modi government?'
The party also promised to end the mafia raj by creating corporations for the sale of liquor and sand mining.
'Everything else is a sham.'
Former MP Dr Ajoy Kumar on Monday offered to resign from the post of president of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee and Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar quit their posts.
Deol, who was elected as MP from Gurdaspur after defeating Congress's Sunil Jakhar by 82,459 votes in the Lok Sabha polls this year, has come under scrutiny for his lack of attendance in the Lower House.
For Lok Sabha candidates, the statutory poll expenditure limit has been fixed at Rs 70 lakh.
The Group has decided to withdraw the Rs 5,000-crore civil defamation suits against Congress leaders and National Herald newspaper over their statements and an article on the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal.
Some reports suggest that the Centre has empowered the BSF to conduct searches, arrest suspects and make seizures up to an area of 50 km inside the Indian territory from the international border.
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