The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded two Congress turncoats and its former Union minister Vijay Sampla for next month's Punjab assembly polls as it released its second list of 27 candidates on Thursday.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
Panthic politics came easily to Parkash Singh Badal. But he was quick to abandon it when it became a problem, points out Aditi Phadnis.
While the BJP has assured voters that these benefits will not be discontinued, AAP leaders have questioned the party's long-term commitment.
Before his legislative assembly debut this time, he has been elected twice as a Member of Parliament from Sangrur.
Besides Kejriwal, no other chief minister will be present in the oath-taking ceremony, according to AAP sources.
A worker from Punjab who was injured in Wednesday's terror attack in Srinagar's Habba Kadal area died at the SKIMS hospital in Srinagar on Thursday morning, taking the toll to two in the first targeted killing of the year by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 10 ministers at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.
The 48-year-old Mann was elected the AAP Legislature Party leader at a meeting of the party MLAs in Mohali on Friday.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Saturday allowed Hamza Shehbaz to remain as the 'trustee' Punjab province chief minister till hearing resumes on Monday, but barred him from using his powers for 'political gains' during this period.
There was more to him than he let on, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
The Supreme Court of India has directed the President to consider the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the 1995 assassination case of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The court gave the President two weeks to decide on the plea. Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007 for his role in the bombing that killed Beant Singh and 16 others. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition on his behalf in 2012.
Controversial Punjabi singer Sidhu Mussewala, who joined the Congress sometime ago will contest from Mansa and actor Sonu Sood's sister Malvika Sood from Moga.
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
Naik Mukesh Singh Manhas, a 29-year-old soldier from Jammu and Kashmir's Samba, was killed in an IED blast carried out by terrorists near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu's Akhnoor sector. Manhas, who was supposed to get married in April, had returned to his Army unit on January 28 after his engagement and giving final touches to his new house. He was killed along with Captain Karamjit Singh Bakshi from Jharkhand's Ranchi. Manhas's family and friends mourned his death, remembering him as an enthusiastic cricketer and a kind-hearted individual.
At the mega auction, Mumbai Indians made some strategic buys, in a bid to build a strong team around their solid Indian core consisting of Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaspreet Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Tilak Varma.
Sources in AAP claimed that the party was contacted by the Shiv Sena-UBT and the NCP-SP for campaigning by Kejriwal in Maharashtra.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said the session of the state assembly will be summoned on September 27.
The Congress party suffered a crushing defeat in the Delhi elections, failing to secure a single seat in the 70-member assembly for the third consecutive time. Key candidates, including Sheila Dikshit's son, Sandeep Dikshit, lost their deposits. The only consolation for the party was a slight improvement in its vote share, which they attribute to a vigorous campaign and a renewed focus on contesting elections independently. However, the defeat raises questions about the party's ability to compete in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, particularly in light of its performance in other recent state elections.
This will be the 49-year-old JMM leader's fourth stint as chief minister. Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes in the recent assembly polls.
Kerala had the highest number of average sitting days at 48 days a year, followed by Odisha (41) and Karnataka (35).
KL Rahul, the stylish Indian batter, has been performing consistently regardless of his batting position.
The constitution of a committee by the Centre to explore the feasibility of "one nation, one election" has opened up the possibility of Lok Sabha polls being advanced so that they could be held with a string of state assembly polls.
Nearly 3,000 polling booths have been identified as sensitive, and special security arrangements, including drone surveillance, have been ensured at some of these locations.
"Opinions of candidates, workers, and party MPs are being recorded to so that any feud over the CM face between Channi and Navjot Singh Siddhu can be avoided," said sources.
There is a proposal from the BJP camp that they would resort to a proportion-based increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats for individual states, based on what they now have. On the face of it, this sounds like a fine argument that those demanding a 'freeze' now cannot oppose without reasons and justification, avers N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dismissing the accusation, Singh asked why would the state government stop Kejriwal from holding a press conference when he was allowed to hold a party programme a few days back.
About 20 Punjab Congress leaders met in Ludhiana on Tuesday, with some of them batting for a key role for Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former state party unit chief who was among the participants.
The incumbent Congress could win only 18 seats, with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi losing both seats he contested -- Chamkaur Sahib as well as Bhadaur.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal on Thursday suspended nine opposition Congress MLAs for the day for their unparliamentary behaviour and insulting the chair of the House.
A heated political battle erupted Tuesday over Arvind Kejriwal's claim of the Haryana government 'poisoning' the Yamuna water, with the Bharatiya Janata Party saying he cannot be forgiven for his 'dangerous statement', while the Aam Aadmi Party chief asserted he won't let the people of Delhi die due to the dirty, poisonous water.
The Punjab police arrested Jasvir Singh after the incident and booked him for hurting religious sentiments and attempt to murder.
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal's car was pelted with stones during campaigning in the New Delhi constituency on Saturday, the party alleged.
Bhagwant Mann will take oath as the chief minister of Punjab on March 16 at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of iconic freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, party sources said on Friday after he met the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.
The cabinet of the new government led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi with a massive majority after over 26 years.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said he cannot restore the river water-sharing pact with three neighbouring states that was scrapped by a unanimous vote in the state assembly earlier this week.\n\n
Senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu has resigned from the post of advocate general of Punjab citing personal reasons, while criminal lawyer Vinod Ghai is set to succeed him.
Punjab's 117 assembly seats are going to be a keenly-watched contest with the Congress, the AAP, the SAD-BSP alliance, and the BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) battling to form the government in the state, with a probable entry of farmers' front in the form of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha.
The five-time former Punjab chief minister died at a private hospital in Mohali near Chandigarh on Tuesday, nine days after he was admitted there with breathing problems. He was 95.
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.
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