Raut also highlighted that the party had goodwill toward the opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
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.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 10 ministers at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.
After many years, intricate caste calculations will dominate politics in Punjab.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will not enter into any alliance for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls, party chief Mayawati said.
'Anyone can come and anyone can go.' 'There is no ideology or vision that differentiates one party from another.'
Consolidating its position, the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested high-profile Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh from the Samajwadi Party and won three assembly seats, including that of Chief Minister Manik Saha, in Tripura in by-election results announced on Sunday.
Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said the former chief minister Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government had to be replaced as it was being run by the BJP from Delhi.
This came amid the buzz of an imminent reshuffle in the Union Cabinet.
The meeting at Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence was seen as very crucial in forging an Opposition unity with efforts on to reconcile differences between the Congress and some regional parties that have been at loggerheads traditionally.
'Those who are part of the NDA, like the JDU and LJP in Bihar, should also think. Polls are approaching in Bihar, people will seek answers from them'
Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi has told investigators that his gang's members, including Canada-based Goldy Brar, hatched a conspiracy and killed Sidhu Moosewala, officials said on Friday.
Besides Kejriwal, no other chief minister will be present in the oath-taking ceremony, according to AAP sources.
A day before her scheduled appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi excise policy case, Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha led a hunger strike here on Friday seeking the passage of the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill in this Budget session of Parliament.
Soon after realising his mistake, Surender Kumar apologised and corrected himself and said, "Priyanka Gandhi zindabad".
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.
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.
'Politics is in a mess. Good people have to join to clean it up.'
Lok Sabha proceedings were washed out for the second consecutive day on Wednesday after the House was repeatedly adjourned due to protests by opposition members who were demanding a separate discussion on the farm laws issue.
The two-time MP was taking part in the Rahul Gandhi-led march in Phillaur in Jalandhar where he fainted, said senior party leader Partap Singh Bajwa, who was also marching in the yatra.
The bypolls were conducted for two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Meghalaya and Odisha and the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab.
The PM expressed gratitude to the MPs voting in favour of the bill and hoped that it will alleviate sufferings of many who faced persecution.
I telephoned Chief Minister Darbara Singh and asked him why this carefully thought-out plan had suddenly been aborted. The Chief Minister sounded very agitated and all he said was that this was not his decision, but the orders had come directly from Home Minister Zail Singh. A fascinating excerpt from retired IAS officer Ravi Sawhney's book, Living A Life.
The apex court also said it will consider whether the matter should be put before a five-judge bench
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'.
The leaders of some Sikh outfits and hardline groups were taken into preventive custody early Wednesday in apprehension of breach of peace after a call that the newly-appointed jathedars would address the community from the Akal Takht.
At many places, where the voters had entered booths before 6 pm and were standing in queues, they were allowed to cast their votes.
The projectile, fired by some unidentified people, hit the Saanjh Kendra adjoining the Sarhali police station on the Amritsar-Bathinda highway on Friday night.
"We did not find any sacrilege attempt or any evidence to back it. One person ran the gurdwara. This thing has moved to murder and inquiry is on," Channi said.
The BJP Friday formally announced that it will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress.
'The President of India, as advised by the prime minister, has accepted the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect,' the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.
The panel, chaired by Mallikarjun Kharge, has been tasked with addressing differences between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The game intensified after Congress fielded Channi from a second seat and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia chose to take on Sidhu from the Amritsar East seat.
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.
A rocket-propelled grenade hit the Punjab police's intelligence wing headquarters in Mohali on Monday night.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia was on Wednesday questioned for more than two hours by a special investigation team probing a drugs case registered against him.
The AAP alleged that it was an "orchestrated attack" and that police stood by as Kejriwal's car was targeted with rods and stones.
Three persons, including a youth leader of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, were on Wednesday arrested in connection with a brawl at a local hotel in Ludhiana, in which a senior officer of Punjab Police was seriously injured.
However, the scheme will be optional for the eligible beneficiaries, Mann said in a video message.
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.
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