This election will decide in what shape and form the Akali Dal will survive.
Badal, who served as the finance minister in the previous Congress government, said, "Seven years ago, I merged the People's Party of Punjab with your party. I did so with immense hope and an expectation of being integrated into an organisation with a rich history that would allow me to serve both the people of Punjab and its interests to the best of my ability."
It will be for the first time in three decades that the Badal family will have no representation in the 117-member Punjab assembly.
Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal (94) became the country's oldest candidate to fight elections as he filed his nomination papers from Lambi on Monday.
'Mr Badal wanted to talk to a member of the Gandhi family to bring about some sort of rapprochement between the Akalis and the Congress which were the two major parties at that time.'
President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several central ministers and chief ministers and leaders cutting across party lines condoled the demise of former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday and hailed his immense contributions to the state as well as the country.
The SAD MP from Bathinda said the alliance will be voted back because it had worked hard for the future of the state on an agenda of "development, development and yet more development".
The Punjab government has declared a holiday on Thursday as a mark of respect to the former chief minister.
Punjab Governor S F Rodrigues administered the oath of office and secrecy to Badal at a ceremony held at PCA stadium in Mohali.
The ruling Congress on Wednesday swept the urban body polls in Punjab, winning six municipal corporations, emerging as the largest party in the seventh and bagging most of the 109 municipal council and nagar panchayats.
A loud sound was heard at around 1 am outside Kalia's residence near Shastri Market in Jalandhar, police said, adding that no one was hurt in the incident.
"It is high time India traded dynasty for meritocracy. This would require fundamental reforms, from imposing legally mandated term limits to requiring meaningful internal party elections, together with a concerted effort to educate and empower the electorate to choose leaders based on merit," Tharoor said.
Five-time former Punjab chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, who was admitted to a private hospital in Mohali over a week ago, died on Tuesday. He was 95.
Majithia and his wife claimed that members of the Vigilance Bureau barged into their house in Green Avenue in Amritsar. They claimed that a similar raid was conducted at their residence in Chandigarh.
Amid the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, a heated argument broke out between Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday when the former accused the latter of getting the farm laws enacted while she was a minister in the Union Cabinet, and added that she 'doing drama' over the laws and showing 'fake support' to the farmers' cause.
When asked if he would be the CM candidate, Amarinder said, "I don't know, that is Congress president's decision."
However, the Army, in a statement, said since Singh's cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot injury, no guard of honour or military funeral was provided, in accordance with the existing policy.
Ahead of their planned protest in Chandigarh on March 5, several Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders were detained in early morning raids at their residences on Tuesday and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann denounced the agitating farmer unions, saying they have turned Punjab into a 'state of dharnas' and caused huge losses to it.
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.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand. The bypolls, however, will not have any direct impact on the respective legislative assemblies. The results will be declared on November 23. In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad. This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically-crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections. In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats - Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala. The bypolls were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
'When the assembly elections happened in West Bengal, it was predicted that Mamata didi will win only by a thin margin but she won with a huge margin'
Hitting out at the Badals, the ruling family of Punjab, the Delhi chief minister said that once his party comes to power, it will launch a commission of inquiry against the family to investigate their 'misrule' in last ten years and send them behind bars.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday tested positive for coronavirus.
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.
Capt Amarinder lambasted Badal for the alleged growing incidents of sacrilege in the state, which he said was a clear attempt by the Akalis to divide Punjab on communal lines.
Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress won one seat each in the bypolls to Patiala (urban) and Talwandi Sabo Assembly seats on Monday but the Aam Aadmi Party finished a poor third.
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.
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.
'I won't be surprised if a third alternative to Badal and the Congress is swept to power in Punjab in 2022.'
Often credited with his party's victory in the 2012 assembly polls, now 59, he became the youngest chief of the Shiromani Akali Dal, when he was elevated to the post in 2008.
'The distrust of traditional political parties in Punjab is an advantage for AAP.'
Punjab Congress today termed Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's allegations that it was scuttling central grants to derail the development campaign of SAD-BJP government, as "ridiculous" and "baseless".
The letter to Sonia Gandhi reminded her of the party's 18-point agenda "given to the last chief minister" of Punjab and said that those were "equally relevant today".
The bodies of Jasdeep Singh, 39, his wife Jasleen Kaur, 27, their eight-month-old daughter Aroohi Dheri and Jasdeep's brother Amandeep Singh, 39, were found in an orchard near Indiana Road and Hutchinson Road on Wednesday evening.
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.
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.
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.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 10 ministers at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.
An explosion took place at the headquarters of the intelligence wing of the Punjab police in Mohali Monday night, sources said in Chandigarh.
Protesters led by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal were shouting slogans against the Congress-led government over several issues including irregularities in the purchase of Fateh kits and alleged diversion of COVID-19 vaccine doses to private hospitals.
