Any decision taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be acceptable to all, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Saturday as talk of Navjot Singh Sidhu being appointed chief of the party's state unit despite his oft-stated reservations gathered force.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday agreed to set up a 10-member strategic policy group to ensure better coordination between the party and the state government and expedite implementation of various government programmes.
The Supreme Court of India has released an inquiry report into the alleged discovery of a large amount of cash at the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma. The report, which includes photos and videos, was uploaded on the court's website. Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has formed an in-house committee to investigate the matter and has asked the Delhi High Court Chief Justice to not assign any judicial work to Justice Varma. Justice Varma has denied the allegations, claiming they are part of a conspiracy to frame him. The inquiry report, submitted by the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, has been made public and calls for a deeper probe into the incident. The incident has raised concerns about judicial accountability and has prompted the Congress party to call for strong measures to uphold public trust in the judiciary.
The meeting assumes significance as the party high command has been trying to resolve the internal rift in the Punjab unit of the Congress and there is talk of its revamp, with just months to go for the assembly polls.
His remarks came on a day when Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi announced slashing of the power tariff by Rs 3 per unit for the domestic sector and increasing the dearness allowance for government employees.
The cricketer-turned-politician thanked the party leadership for appointing him head of the Punjab unit and said he would work with every 'member of the Cong family' to fulfil the 'Jittega Punjab' mission and strengthen the party's organisation in the state.
The committee comprises all the top leaders including Union ministers and AICC general secretaries from states.
The incident occurred in Takkarpura village of Patti town on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, they said.
After Congress president Sonia Gandhi met leaders of the G-23 grouping to resolve internal party issues, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday said "indulging the dissenters too much" will encourage more dissent.
The action being contemplated is based on the findings submitted by a Supreme Court-appointed committee which probed the security breach during Modi's visit.
'Each state is unique, but when it comes to finance, the fundamentals cannot be different.'
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
The second phase of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Jharkhand, which was scheduled to commence on Wednesday, has been cancelled, a party official said.
'When I said the Gandhi family had to step aside, it was because we have consistently seen that the public has not accepted them.'
The Congress has proposed AAP should contest five seats while the Samajwadi Party and Left parties could contest one seat each.
In spite of his trying hard he is unable to connect not only with ordinary voters but with most party colleagues as well, observes Virendra Kapoor.
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 maharaja's win in Punjab after 10 years has also rekindled the hopes for the revival of the grand old party.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu will meet senior party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Delhi on June 29, sources in his office said.
Agriculture Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal says she will return to Punjab only when Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is removed.
'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
Navjot Singh Sidhu was not part of the Channi-led 'jatha' (group) which went to pay obeisance at the gurdwara.
This is a challenge India's political establishment will have to face unitedly, without looking for electoral benefit, warns Vir Sanghvi.
Singh, a former Punjab chief minister and a sitting MP, at the same time said that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi can step into Sonia's shoes if she feels that time has come for her to go and that she is "tired" of being at the helm of the party since 1997.
A political slugfest broke out on Wednesday between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cavalcade, in a major security breach, got stranded on a flyover, 30 km away from Hussainiwala in Punjab, as a group of protesting farmers blocked his route.
The Congress on Tuesday removed Amarinder Singh as its Punjab unit chief in the backdrop of the party's dismal show in assembly elections last year and appointed MP Pratap Singh Bajwa in his place.
Last month, Kejriwal had joined the contractual teachers in Punjab's Mohali, who staged a protest making a similar demand.
In a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Saturday appointed Avinash Pande the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh.
The Congress picked Charanjit Singh Channi as the next chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dailt to hold the post in the state, a day after Amarinder Singh resigned following a bitter power tussle in the party.
Hours after Congress leader Manish Tewari on Thursday said the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw refuted the charge and termed it a "normal bill".
Haryana Police lobbed tear gas shells at farmers from Punjab at Shambhu border between the two states as thousands of protesters stayed put there on Wednesday, the second day of their 'Delhi Chalo' march.
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.
Seven Congress legislators and three Aam Aadmi Party MLAs who recently switched over to the ruling party also said Navjot Singh Sidhu was a celebrity and was no doubt an asset to the party but condemning and criticising his own party and government in public has only created a "rift in the cadres and weakened it".
The Congress party continues to be racked by arbitrary decision-making and the absence of accountability.
The statements the separatists make, the abominable tableaux at their parades, the slogans, posters, and selfies with assault rifles are not India's problem. If they are a nuisance, it should bother their host countries, because they are armed and have their own underworld with deadly gang rivalries. Significantly, none of this happens in the US -- only in snowflaky Canada, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Sidhu was in Patiala to take part in a protest against inflation when the Supreme Court verdict came in.
As state-level leaders tried to placate Sidhu, he made it clear through the video that he was in no mood to budge on his 'principles'.
'Everything else is a sham.'
The Punjab police arrested Jasvir Singh after the incident and booked him for hurting religious sentiments and attempt to murder.
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