Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh criticizes the BJP's functioning, stating he is not being consulted. He rules out rejoining the Congress but expresses willingness to help Sonia Gandhi personally. He also discusses Punjab's political landscape, AAP's performance, and national security.
The development has come amid a power tussle that polarised the ruling party in the state headed for elections in just about four months.
On his condition of resolving farmers' issues, the BJP leader said Singh did not talk about ending the farmers' agitation.
Singh, 80, had floated the PLC last year after quitting the Congress following his unceremonious exit as chief minister, but his party failed to win any seat in the state assembly polls.
The incident took place right outside Parliament's Makar Dwar, the main entrance which MPs take to enter the new Parliament building, where Gandhi was standing in solidarity with suspended Congress MPs, mostly from Punjab.
Amarinder Singh was ousted from the party and he later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The House has been witnessing uproar after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed to cite an article based on excerpts from an unpublished 'memoir' of former Army chief General M M Naravane (retd).
Chief Judicial Magistrate C L Mohal told the Punjab chief minister to appear in a Chandigarh court on September 20.
Amarinder, 75, was sworn in as the state's 26th chief minister along with nine ministers, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Congress leader and former chief minister Amarinder Singh was on Wednesday expelled from the Punjab assembly after being indicted by a House committee in a graft case and his seat declared vacant. A resolution to his effect was moved by ruling Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Harish Rai Dhanda and passed in the assembly amid protests by slogan-shouting Congress members who boycotted the proceedings.
8 Member of Parliaments were suspended from Lok Sabha for tearing & throwing papers at the Chair till April 2. Uproar started when Rahul Gandhi was barred from citing former Army Chief, General M M Naravane's memoir on 2020 India-China clash. Rediff.com brings you the details of these MPs who were suspended.
There's no doubt that now Captain Singh has no choice: A succession plan has been forced on him. He can sulk, or he can fight back. But the playing field is no longer as level as it was.
Singh (80) had floated the Punjab Lok Congress last year after quitting the Congress.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the expulsion of former chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh from the state assembly.A bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal, however, stayed the state assembly's decision asking Election Commission to declare Singh's assembly seat as vacant.The former chief minister was expelled from the House after a resolution was passed on the basis of the report of a special committee, which was appointed by the Punjab assembly.
Amarinder Singh, who was removed as Congress Punjab unit chief, said he would have suggested a different name to replace him had he been consulted.
Singh had moved the High Court last week challenging the assembly's September 10 decision to strip him of his membership and declaring his Patiala seat vacant after a House Committee indicted him and three others in the case. The committee charged them with releasing 32.10 acres of Improvement Trust, Amritsar land for development by private colonisers in violation of rules following a complaint by a senior Congress leader Bir Devinder Singh.
The 79-year-old widely respected and popular leader steered the Congress in 2017 to a landslide victory in the 117-member assembly to occupy the chief minister's post for the second time.
"Notwithstanding my personal anguish, I hope this will not cause any damage to the hard-earned peace and development in the state," Singh wrote in his letter to Gandhi
'He was walking on the road when a car coming from Bhogpur hit him. He suffered head injuries and was taken to a private hospital where he died in the evening'
A new book reveals former Congress MP Amarinder Singh's mission to arrange a meeting between Rajiv Gandhi and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the 1980s, along with other anecdotes.
The Congress stalwart could not have asked for a better gift on his 75th birthday.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said no loss of life was reported in any of the minor incidents reported in some parts of Punjab.
Congress' Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that Navjot Singh Sidhu would have been a tougher contestant from Amritsar than Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley whom he dismissed as a "nominal candidate".
10 Heroes of the 1965 War which ended on September 23 60 years ago.
If the BJP wants to recruit him, it needs to make the supreme sacrifice -- of rolling back the three farm laws, because without that, Amarinder Singh is unlikely to cross over.
He said Parrikar had no right or authority to order the services chiefs to accept what is not acceptable to them, adding he had once again shown his inability to understand the services.
The two veteran politicians seem to be enjoying themselves dancing to covers of 'Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche' and 'Gulabi Aankhen Jo Teri Dekhi' both originally sung by Mohammed Rafi in the late 1960s and 70s.
Meanwhile, Navjot Singh Sidhu again launched an attack on the former CM.
"Happy to inform that Punjab Lok Congress has received its Party Symbol -- Hockey Stick with Ball. #Bas Hun Goal Krna Baki (Making goals only left now)," the Punjab Lok Congress said in a tweet.
'Change was very much needed for the Congress to win the 2022 assembly elections.'
Singh's suspension came days after he questioned the manner in which a vigilance bureau team raided the residence of Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in Amritsar in a disproportionate assets case.
'Because if a Dalit is made the chief minister, they ask who is taking the decisions in the Congress?'
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday allocated portfolios to the new ministers, keeping 14 departments with himself and giving home affairs to deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and health to other deputy O P Soni.
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.
Shekhawat, the BJP's poll in-charge for Punjab, said to finalise the seat sharing agreement, a joint committee will be formed comprising two leaders from each party.
Imran's uncle Jahangir Khan had played for Patiala, then captained by the Punjab CM's father.
Amarinder Singh failed spectacularly in these assembly elections -- his new party failed to open its account, his ally BJP fell flat and he failed to even win his own constituency.
The BJP Friday formally announced that it will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress.
Any decision taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be acceptable to all, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Saturday as talk of Navjot Singh Sidhu being appointed chief of the party's state unit despite his oft-stated reservations gathered force.
He also said he even declined the post of deputy chief minister offered by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to him.
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