'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.
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.
The BJP Friday formally announced that it will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress.
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.
He also said he even declined the post of deputy chief minister offered by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to him.
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.
Ahead of Amarinder Singh's resignation as Punjab chief minister on Saturday, over 50 Congress legislators from Punjab had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking his replacement, highly placed party sources said.
BJP president J P Nadda also appointed former Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill its national spokesperson.
Pargat Singh, Raj Kumar Verka, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Kuljit Nagra and Rana Gurjit Singh are likely to be included in the cabinet, according to the sources.
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.
As many as 22 Patiala corporators and Congress leaders joined former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh's new party Punjab Lok Congress at a party event on Friday ahead of the assembly elections next year.
Sidhu and Amarinder Singh have been at loggerheads for the past some time, with the Amritsar (East) MLA recently attacking the CM over the desecration cases.
Rawat had played a crucial role in the removal of Amarinder Singh as chief minister of Punjab, who was replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi.
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.
'Feeling claustrophobic and humiliated by the manner in which the Congress vice-president was treating him, he started toying with the idea of floating his own party.'
She praised the chief minister for leading the party to "many victories" and taking Punjab on a "road to progress".
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh met more than 20 party leaders, including ministers, MLAs and MPs at his farmhouse in Mohali's Siswan, sources said. Sidhu, who may be declared the state party chief, met four ministers and at least six MLAs at the residence of Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa in Chandigarh, they said.
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.
Jakhar, who is not an MLA, is believed to be close the top leadership and is considered a prominent Hindu face of the party.
Sidhu and Amarinder Singh has been at loggerheads for the past some time, with the Amritsar (East) MLA recently attacking the CM over the desecration cases.
Congress leaders are now in a "wait and watch" mode over the possible ripple effect of Punjab developments in faction-ridden Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states other than Punjab where the party is in power on its own.
The Congress has appointed Pratap Singh Bajwa as the new chief of its Punjab unit, replacing Captain Amarinder Singh.
Singh, who had dropped Sidhu from the Punjab government during his tenure as the state's chief minister, never had smooth relations with the cricketer-turned-politician and was against appointing him as the Punjab unit chief of the Congress.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been at loggerheads with the chief minister, attacking him on issues like the alleged delay in the completion of a probe into the 2015 desecration of Sikh texts and the subsequent police firing on protesters.
Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday hit out at the Congress for blaming the anti-incumbency of his four-and-half-years tenure for the poor show in assembly polls, saying the party's leadership will never learn.
10 Heroes of the 1965 War which ended on September 23 60 years ago.
Even as the assembly elections in Punjab are around the corner, Congress MP Preneet Kaur, wife of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, continues to stay away from poll campaigning in Patiala.
The Charanjit Singh Channi-led government in Punjab on Thursday shunted Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan and appointed Anirudh Tewari in her place.
Amid the ongoing rift in the Punjab Congress unit, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has called a meeting of the state's Congress Legislative Party.
There is no threat to the Amarinder Singh-led government in Punjab and the party's victory prospects for the upcoming assembly elections, Rawat said.
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.
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.
Singh's meeting with Shah on Wednesday had added another dimension in politics in Punjab where no party is being seen as a clear favourite in the polls, expected to be held early next year.
"There is a clear hand of the Punjab government in it. Here in Haryana, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other Congress leaders besides some Left leaders are instigating farmers to take law in their hands," Haryana chief minister M L Khattar said
"Congress state in-charge Harish Rawat is my good friend but who gave him the right to take such a big decision about Punjab at his level? What is the meaning of Captain's leadership now after the Kharge committee's decision to contest elections under Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi?" Congress MLA Pargat Singh said.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia had raised the issue of a recent statement by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who had said in London recently that Congress, as a party, was never involved in the carnage.
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