Australia spin great Shane Warne picked former India captain Sourav Ganguly as the skipper of his greatest Indian XI. However, the most notable omission in his team was that of former India batting great VVS Laxman, who enjoyed an impeccable record against Australia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In a race to woo voters with freebies ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday promised Rs 2,000 per month for women homemakers if his party returns to power.
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".
Sidhu made the remark welcoming the change, ushered by the people and emphasising that their verdict should be 'humbly accepted'.
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.
Just as political observers braced for another tiresome tantrum, on Tuesday, November 2, Harish Rawat -- the Congress secretary in charge of Punjab and a native of Uttarakhand -- whisked Channi and Sidhu to his home state and a visit to the Kedarnath shrine where spirituality and no doubt the freezing weather seems to have brought about yet another ceasefire in the Punjab Congress for now.
Without naming any party, Sidhu made the remark ahead of the announcement of the Congress' chief ministerial face by the party's former president Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Ludhiana for the February 20 Punjab assembly polls.
The chief minister said that the Congress will surely take action against Sidhu for his alleged remarks as the party does not believe in indiscipline.
Sidhu backed his wife saying 'she would never lie', while the CM said she refused to contest from Amritsar.
"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.
He didn't have dinner as he had already taken his meal, they said, adding that the former state Congress chief is prisoner number 1,37,683.
Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann too questioned separately Gandhi's description of Channi as belonging to 'gareeb ghar', asking 'from which angle, is he poor'.
Sidhu told Gandhi that he is working hard and will work harder now, and that he will join his duty as Punjab Congress president, Rawat said.
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.
As Bhagwant Mann repeatedly invokes Bhagat Singh in his speeches, Utkarsh Mishra picks five takeaways from the legendary revolutionary's thoughts that may help Punjab's new chief minister identity his goals.
Expressing concerns over another round of crisis in the Punjab unit of Congress, Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari said that he is 'extremely distressed' after Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation as party's state unit chief and claimed that the only people who are happy with what is going on in the border state is the 'deep state of Pakistan.'
A resolution to this effect was passed unanimously in a meeting of the CLP in Chandigarh.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, who have not been on the same page over certain appointments, Tuesday said they will work with each other and fight the upcoming polls together, according to party MLAs.
Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu met party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday morning, and is learnt to have discussed his role in the revamp in the party's state unit ahead of assembly polls.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife, Navjot Kaur, is pitted against another greenhorn and independent candidate, Simperpreet Kaur Bhatia, in Amrtisar East, with both candidates hoping to cash in on the popularity of their husbands.
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.
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
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.
The BJP feels that Navjot Singh Sidhu will prove to be a draw among the youth, the middle classes and the Sikh community in Delhi, reports Sunita Moga in New Delhi
A few former MLAs, considered to be his loyalists and a few supporters, turned up at Sidhu's residence in Patiala Friday morning to extend moral support to him.
I don't want to hide that some questions are still being resolved, Rawat said.
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan is the final resting place of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanakji.
Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was on Monday sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dalit to hold the top post in the state.
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 58-year-old cricketer-turned-politician will perform the job from his barrack only because of security reasons, a jail official said.
The meeting comes amid continued attack by former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on the chief minister.
The Congress is likely to declare its chief ministerial face for Punjab on February 6 when former party chief Rahul Gandhi will visit the poll-bound state, party sources said.
Garg had questioned Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh's criticism of Pakistan while Mali gave a controversial remark on Kashmir.
He said that to concentrate on the upcoming polls in Uttarakhand, it had been on his mind to seek to be relieved of the responsibility of the party's Punjab affairs in-charge.
A social activist, a young law graduate, a debutante, and an eye surgeon -- Punjab polls gave gave birth to a number of giant killers from the Aam Aadmi Party, who drubbed such stalwarts as Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Badals, and even Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
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