The TMC also announced it would hold talks with other regional parties in their bid to take on the BJP in the crucial 2024 elections but at the same time denied that it was planning a third front, separate from the Congress-led front.
Congregations of Sikhs in Amritsar and in Karnal against the formation of a separate Gurdwara Management Committee in Haryana were called off on Saturday after the Akal Takht's intervention but Haryana Sikhs went ahead with the election of office-bearers for the ad-hoc committee.
Talking to reporters Khatkar Kalan, he also suggested that Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence will use farmers' unrest over the new farm laws and will try to foment trouble in the border state of Punjab.
The MPs criticised the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership for being in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA even after these bills were proposed by the government.
Farmers shouldn't be denied right to approach court, the MPs added.
On Sunday, Rajya Sabha passed the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
Former Congress MLA from Barnala, Kewal Dhillon, and former Shiormani Akali Dal MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh also joined the BJP.
Leaders of a number of opposition parties on Tuesday met twice after which they decided to put up a united fight for the post.
JD-U leaders contend that R C P Singh may have misled the BJP leadership into believing that Nitish Kumar was ready for a smaller share in power at the Centre.
The polls for 70-member assembly will be held on February 8 and results will be declared on February 11.
Sidhu was in Patiala to take part in a protest against inflation when the Supreme Court verdict came in.
Shiromani Akali Dal lawmaker Manjinder Singh Sirsa reacting to Karan Johar's post on the celebrities at his party, said they were "flaunting their drugged state".
His remarks came a day after AAP Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann took a dig at the cricketer-turned-politician and asked him to tweet about the 'funds' allegedly accepted by the ruling Congress from private power companies in the state.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was defeated by Aam Aadmi Party's first-timer and an eye surgeon from Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib seats, respectively.
Last month, the Channi government replaced the state's advocate general A P S Deol after strong opposition from Sidhu.
'In Punjab, disappointment among the people about the AAP government has already set in.'
The coming year will be one that will test sabka vishwas to the utmost, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
The BJP at 43 is a work in progress, with total ideological continuity and much substantive change in political method and style, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Two groups clashed inside the Golden Temple premises for close to half an hour on Friday morning leaving at least 12 persons injured, even as the temple city observed a bandh to mark the 30th anniversary of Operation Bluestar.
Even as Sidhu parries queries on whether he would join the AAP, dissent is brewing in Arvind Kejriwal's party.
In a blow to Punjab Congress, two of its senior leader resigned from the party and joined the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday.
A statement to this effect was made in Patna by RCP Singh, a close aide of Kumar, amid buzz on cabinet expansion at the Centre.
The Aam Aadmi Party MLAs spent the night in the state legislative assembly building demanding copies of the Bill which the state's Congress government is now expected to introduce on Tuesday.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Both the BJP and the Congress have banked on new and young faces, some of whom have been nominated by the parties for the first time.
'We always had a doubt that Sidhu would not campaign against the Badals.'
A senior cabinet minister in the Punjab government and his delegation came under attack in New York as hundreds of Sikhs protesting his visit allegedly threw stones and hurled a shoe at the leaders, following which the police took two youths into custody.
SAD dubbed "Kejriwal's meeting" as "unconstitutional and unacceptable".
Sibal said the BJP always tries to gain a foothold in states where its presence is limited and afterwards "dumps" its allies.
"Making a person belonging to Dalit caste as the chief minister of Punjab is nothing but an election stunt. I have come to know through the media today that assembly elections in Punjab will be fought under a non-Dalit leader and not under Channi," Mayawati told newspersons in Lucknow
Former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha who joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday said his tipping point to join the party was when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got attacked in Nandigram.
Seeking justice for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, leaders of various political parties on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention in directing the government to order a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe into the violence.
Chandigarh police used water cannons to stop the protesters from going towards the chief minister's residence.
Celebrations broke out outside the Rajasthan BJP headquarters in Jaipur and the party workers burst firecrackers and distributed sweets as Murmu emerged victorious in the presidential poll.
The numbers, however, appear to be in favour of the ruling dispensation to get these bills passed from Rajya Sabha, while the lower house has already cleared them despite a key NDA member Shiromani Akali Dal vehemently opposing them.
There will be no second term for President Kovind and no elevation for Vice President Naidu.
In her four-page resignation letter addressed to the prime minister, she said, 'In view of the decision of the government of India to go ahead with the Bill on the issue of marketing of agricultural produce without addressing and removing the apprehensions of farmers and decision of my party, Shiromani Akali Dal, not to be a part of anything that goes against the interest of farmers, I find it impossible to continue to perform my duties as a minister in the union council of ministers.'
He has no challenger in the Congress, the Akali Dal is in disarray. Will he call a snap election?
Kejriwal's apology spree began last month, with "sorries" to the BJP's Nitin Gadkari, the Congress's Kapil Sibal and the Akali Dal's Bikram Singh Majithia.
The Aam Aadmi Party has nominated former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, IIT Delhi faculty Sandeep Pathak and industrialist Sanjeev Arora for the March 31 Rajya Sabha polls.
