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.
Actor-philanthropist Sonu Sood's sister Malvika Sood on Monday joined the Congress, with Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi batting for her candidature from Moga for the February 14 assembly polls.
Amid the ongoing crisis within the Congress in Punjab, its national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate on Friday expressed the hope that its leaders "talk more in private and less in public."
In an unprecedented development, MLAs of opposition Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana on Thursday virtually stormed the assembly of neighbouring Punjab to protest against a move that could stall construction of a canal by which Haryana is supposed to receive water.
Aam Aadmi Party's Ferozepur Rural candidate Amandeep Ashu Banger on Monday quit the party and joined the ruling Congress in Punjab, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's outfit runs like a "multinational company" with only Delhi leaders calling the shots.
Nearly five years ago when he joined the Congress, ex-cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu had said he is a 'born Congressman' now coming back to his roots.
'The fight is between the Congress and Akali Dal.'
Revenge he will exact from a party he had led with great aplomb until the Gandhi siblings stepped in and, in order to show who was the boss, flung him aside, observes Virendra Kapoor.
'The PM of India was 20 km away from the Pakistan border and he is one of the persons under extreme threat from that country and they put his life in danger.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the party will go into the Punjab assembly polls with a CM face and the decision on it will be taken soon after consulting party workers.
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.
The shoe flung from the opposition benches fell just short of where Majithia was seated. Protesting Congress MLAs also threw documents including pages from some CAG reports at the speaker, who had to be protected by House staff.
Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu and Godse was Hindutvadi, the Congress leader said.
'It will impact the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.'
General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others were killed in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said.
A dominant force in the country's politics for decades, the grand old party's free fall continued as it lost Punjab to AAP and finished with just two seats out of 403 in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
Western UP contributes nearly 70 seats to the 402-member UP assembly. In 2017, the BJP had swept the region. Every pre-2022 poll survey had suggested the party would face its biggest attrition from this region because of the farmers' groups.
The ruling Congress on Wednesday swept the urban body polls in Punjab, winning six municipal corporations, emerging as the largest party in the seventh and bagging most of the 109 municipal council and nagar panchayats.
The letter to Sonia Gandhi reminded her of the party's 18-point agenda "given to the last chief minister" of Punjab and said that those were "equally relevant today".
Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma said a large number of buses and other vehicles carrying BJP workers and other people were prevented from reaching the rally site.
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.
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
Amarinder would hold the portfolios of General Administration, Personnel, Home Affairs and Justice, Vigilance and other departments not assigned to any other minister.
On joining the party, Kumar said, "I am joining Congress because it's not just a party, it's an idea. It's a country's oldest and most democratic party, and I am emphasising on 'democratic'...Not just me many think that country can't survive without the Congress..."
'The distrust of traditional political parties in Punjab is an advantage for AAP.'
Kejriwal's centralised way of governance might work in Delhi, but Punjab will call for delegation, observes Sanjeev Nayyar.
The BJP IT cell has held meetings right down to booth levels and these volunteers have been working for the past six months already.
'That would be very bad for them and suicidal for both the Gandhis and the Congress party.'
'The 10% increase in women voters was a determined bloc of voters.' 'They were willing to try this third party, specially because it seemed it had done something in Delhi.'
The Uttar Pradesh government grappled on Monday with the aftermath of violence during a farmers protest in Lakhimpur Kheri, lodging a case against Union minister Ajay Mishra's son, promising a probe by a retired high court judge and stopping opposition leaders from reaching the trouble spot.
'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?'
Lashing out at Kejriwal's "confrontationist attitude", she said, people of Delhi were "regretting" what they had done one year ago.
Having twice betrayed the BJP -- and Arvind Kejriwal determined not to admit in AAP anyone who could question his authority -- Sidhu seems to have reached a dead-end in his political career, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
'Change was very much needed for the Congress to win the 2022 assembly elections.'
AAP will have to learn to be patient as such electoral changes do not happen in a hurry, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party leaders met the governor in Chandigarh on Thursday, demanding the dismissal of the state's home minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and the police chief over the security breach during the prime minister's visit to Punjab.
The Sikhs, especially in Punjab, are already angry and frustrated, cautions Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Akali Dal-BJP alliance won on four seats and the AAP bagged one.
'He is a key fulcrum point in the pan-Indian creation of an effective Opposition to the BJP.'
