Former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday appeared all set to become Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha after his appointment as Leader of Congress in the Upper House.
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.
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 Akali government is not responsible for the Punjab power crisis as Mr Sidhu is saying.'
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.
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.
He further said Sidhu's resignation has been forwarded to Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore.
Congress has decided to re-nominate Union minister Manish Tewari from Ludhiana seat and his candidature will be announced soon.
Finding Rahul Gandhi's successor is likely to top the agenda when the party's top brass meets.
Soon after taking the oath of office, the newly-sworn in Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said his government is standing with farmers and will appeal to the Centre to withdraw the three farm laws.
Amid the factional feud in the Punjab Congress, Sidhu will be meeting All India Congress Committee general secretary Harish Rawat and senior party leader K C Venugopal on October 14 for a discussion on organisational matters related to the party's state unit.
Mann made the claim while addressing a gathering after laying foundation stones for setting up tehsil complexes at Dirba and Cheema in Sangrur.
The state had witnessed a record single-day spike of 7,014 cases on Sunday.
One way forward could be for the CWC to name an interim working president for the party and then ideally dissolve itself, following which the main leadership positions within the party, including the CWC itself, should be opened up to fresh elections
The maharaja's win in Punjab after 10 years has also rekindled the hopes for the revival of the grand old party.
Among the 17 new AICC secretaries named so far, 10 are below 50 years of age, indicating the generational change in the 132-year-old Congress being brought in by 47-year-old Rahul, reports Amit Agnihotri.
In a statement, Deol said Sidhu's 'repeated utterances seek to derail the earnest efforts of the state government to ensure justice in the drugs matter and the sacrilege cases'.
The provisions exempt farmers from attachment of land up to 2.5 acres and provide for prevention of hoarding and black marketing of agricultural produce.
The current battle within the party is seen as setting the stage for August 10 when Sonia completes one year of interim presidentship, and questions are being raised about a leadership vacuum. For the first time, responsible quarters are suggesting that as Sonia cannot function as interim president indefinitely and Rahul seems to want power but not the responsibility, one way out is collective leadership, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Sidhu made the remark welcoming the change, ushered by the people and emphasising that their verdict should be 'humbly accepted'.
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
'It's not that the Opposition has to search for common ground.' 'The government is handing the common ground to the Opposition.'
Rahul is likely to emerge as the lone candidate in the fray and decks have been cleared for his election as the Congress president, succeeding his mother Sonia Gandhi, who has held the post for 19 years in a row now.
Channi also said the party is supreme and the government follows the party's ideology.
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal's bullet-proof car was damaged and four people were injured in a clash between Congress and Akali workers during the filing of nomination papers for the Jalalabad municipal polls in Fazilka on Tuesday, officials said.
Sources said Sidhu's resignation has not been received by the party and its leadership will take a call once it reaches them.
Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday met Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and formally staked the party's claim to the post of Leader of Opposition in the House, an issue that has got embroiled in a controversy.
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.
'The EC should take permission from the PMO at the earliest and register FIRs against the two,' Kejriwal wrote in the letter.
Prominent G-23 members including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari have not been included in the Congress list of star campaigners for West Bengal assembly elections.
The 48-year-old Mann was elected the AAP Legislature Party leader at a meeting of the party MLAs in Mohali on Friday.
Jakhar, the former president of Punjab Congress, said the party had never named its CM face adding that it was only an exception that the Congress high command had declared Captain Amarinder Singh as the chief ministerial candidate in the run-up to the 2017 state assembly polls.
Scindia's departure from the Congress also raises question marks about delayed decision-making and status quo in the Congress.
The incident occurred in Takkarpura village of Patti town on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, they said.
The Aam Aadmi Party MLAs spent the night in the state legislative assembly building demanding copies of the Bill which the state's Congress government is now expected to introduce on Tuesday.
There was speculation whether Sidhana would take part in the public meeting as he is wanted by the Delhi Police for his alleged role in the violence that broke out during a tractor parade called by farmer unions on January 26 demanding the repeal of the agri laws.
In his resignation letter, Kishor stated that as he decided to take a temporary break from an active role in public life, he will not be able to discharge his duties as the principal advisor to the Punjab CM.
There are instances -- both from national and state elections -- of economic under-performers being returned to power, and also of parties being thrown out despite good performance, observes T N Ninan.
The old alliance between the BJP and the SAD broke last year when the Shiromani Akali Dal quit the National Democratic Alliance over the farm laws.
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