He served as the Union health minister in Modi's first term from November 9, 2014 to May 30, 2019.
Some candidates in these two states have been provided security till the poll process ends.
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
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.
When electoral alliances are cooked and tested in the blender of political endurance, all in prep for April-May 2024.
The list includes constituencies where the BJP came second or third in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and also some which the party has never won.
Several party hoppers including Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa and Anil Joshi were trailing from their respective constituencies in Punjab, according to poll trends.
Polling to 115 of 117 seats of the Punjab Assembly will be held amidst tight security.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira was arrested by the Punjab Police in connection with a 2015 drugs case on Thursday morning, official sources said.
The top court is scrutinising the ballot papers and watching the video recordings which were brought before it by a judicial officer appointed by the Punjab & Haryana high court's Registrar General.
Three private gunmen hired by Rathee for security also suffered injuries in the attack.
Meanwhile, Navjot Singh Sidhu again launched an attack on the former CM.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari is confident that his party will come back to power in Uttrakhand as well as Punjab, where it has an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal. He also believes that the party will fare way better in Uttar Pradesh than the predictions made by several exit polls. "I am confident that we will win the elections in Uttrakhand and Punjab," he said.
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.
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.
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'.
AAP is working on its new strategy to build a strong organisational set-up with leaders from all sections of society, reports Nitin Kumar.
The Shiromani Akali Dal-Sanyukt will contest on 17 seats.
The leaders of the saffron party also posted their wishes and religious prayers for Modi on Twitter, using the hashtag "LongLivePMModi".
Ahead of the Punjab assembly polls, former Army chief Gen Joginder Jaswant Singh on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chandigarh in the presence of the party leadership, including Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
'This can eventually start the end of the current market frenzy, which has lasted for a full year.'
Despite attaining absolute majority in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party lost its vote share in comparison to Congress which failed to live up to its expectations in the poll results of the 117 member assembly.
The Congress policy of minority appeasement and burdening the middle-class has cost it dear in Punjab
KC Venugopal mentioned that the Congress's goal is to diminish the BJP's representation in Uttar Pradesh by securing half of the seats in the state.
The Election Commission on Thursday asked its Delhi chief electoral officer to probe the Aam Aadmi Party's complaints against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Parvesh Verma and allegations of additions and deletions in the electoral roll of the New Delhi assembly seat.
The BJP is willing to offer two Lok Sabha seats, including Baghpat which is currently represented by its MP Satya Pal Singh, to the RLD and may also give it a Rajya Sabha seat, they added.
'My names is Arvind Kejriwal and I am not a terrorist' is the Delhi chief minister's message for the countrymen from Tihar jail, Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh said Tuesday, slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party for the treatment being meted out to him in custody.
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.
While the BJP has assured voters that these benefits will not be discontinued, AAP leaders have questioned the party's long-term commitment.
On the announcement of his gurantees, Kejriwal said, "I have not discussed with my INDIA bloc partners about this. I will press upon my INDIA bloc partners to fulfill these guarantees."
The Aam Aadmi Party's MP and lone Lok Sabha member Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday along with party MLA Sheetal Angural, dealing a blow to the party already facing a crisis following the arrest of its leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
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.
Sources within the INDIA bloc said appointing Nitish Kumar as convenor would lend credibility to the INDIA bloc's demand for conducting a nationwide caste census.
Farmer outfits had held a "khap mahapanchayat" in Uttar Pradesh and a series of protests in Punjab and Haryana on Thursday, showing solidarity with the wrestlers who have accused Singh of sexually harassing female grapplers, including a minor.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's yatra on Sunday met a hostile reception in Punjab, with protesters hurling eggs at his 'rath' and waving black flags, briefly disrupting his convoy's journey in the state, where the party is in power along with Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal).
Hours after taking a 'U-turn' by informing the high court that it is withdrawing its notification dissolving all gram panchayats in the state, the Punjab government suspended two senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers on Thursday for a 'technically-flawed' decision.
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.
Indians have topped the number of illegal immigrants from Asian countries caught at land, sea, and air checkpoints of the US since 2022.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Parkash Singh Badal-led Shiromoni Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Punjab, saying the state which was once a frontrunner in all spheres had now fallen behind.
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