Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday thwarted the Aam Aadmi Party government's plan to summon a special assembly session to bring in a confidence motion.
The three-time MLA from Phagwara served as a minister in the Cabinets including those of Beant Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Amarinder Singh.
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Sushil Rinku on Saturday won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election, defeating his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by a margin of 58,691 votes.
Delhi and Punjab are ruled by the AAP and these are the only two states that have free electricity supply, he said.
AAP is working on its new strategy to build a strong organisational set-up with leaders from all sections of society, reports Nitin Kumar.
Aam Aadmi Party's Ferozepur Rural candidate Amandeep Ashu Banger on Monday quit the party and joined the ruling Congress in Punjab, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's outfit runs like a "multinational company" with only Delhi leaders calling the shots.
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.
Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party and wished for the release of other leaders lodged in Tihar jail.
The government will set up 16 new medical colleges over the next five years.
Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar's Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat after defeating his nearest rival, Aam Aadmi Party's Gurmail Singh, by a margin of 5,822 votes.
The Congress and the AAP fought the Lok Sabha polls together in Delhi while they had contested separately in Punjab.
The only factor working against the AAP, and in favour of the Congress, is the infighting in the former.
Anti-incumbency sentiment in Punjab puts SAD in a weak spot. But voters remain divided over AAP and Congress. Sahil Makkar reports.
The incumbent Congress could win only 18 seats, with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi losing both seats he contested -- Chamkaur Sahib as well as Bhadaur.
His remarks comes after AAP's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with CM Mann, Punjab ministers and MLAs at Kapurthala House in Delhi on Tuesday amid rumours of dissent in the party's Punjab unit.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat was unable to end its 18-year jinx in Visavadar as it lost the bypolls to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party despite a strong campaign.
The party has fielded Dr Charanjit Singh from Sri Chamkaur Sahib against Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
'One needs to understand what kind of means the BJP use to bring other party leaders in their party.' 'They are unscrupulous politicians and money plays an important role.'
After a resounding victory in Punjab polls, the Aam Aadmi Party will hit the ground in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat which will go to polls in November this year.
The Aam Aadmi Party has decided to launch a massive membership drive in the southern states to build on the momentum of its stupendous victory in the Punjab assembly polls.
Two former MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Nasseb Singh resigned from the primary membership of the party putting the party's Lok Sabha preparations in doubt.
Mann, 48, is a two-time MP from Sangrur and is the party's state unit chief.
The Dhuri assembly seat is presently represented by Congress MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy.
Kejriwal then said that though he had wanted party MP Bhagwant Mann's name to be declared as the chief ministerial candidate, the latter insisted that the people of Punjab should make this decision.
A meeting of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs will be held on Tuesday morning, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is likely to tender his resignation after it, the party said.
Moderate turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling across five assembly constituencies across Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala where bypolls are underway on Thursday.
Opposition parties targeted the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led state government over the law and order situation and demanded that he step down on moral grounds.
The poll is witnessing a direct contest between ruling NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy, with the BJP-led alliance having a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The Punjab BJP dubbed the allegations as "baseless" and "bundle of lies" and said AAP is trying to divert attention of people from its "failures".
Sunita Kejriwal is slowly emerging out of the shadows to assume a bigger role to give a fillip to the AAP's campaigning which has been affected by the chief minister's arrest in a money laundering case in March.
Besides Kejriwal, no other chief minister will be present in the oath-taking ceremony, according to AAP sources.
Dismissing the accusation, Singh asked why would the state government stop Kejriwal from holding a press conference when he was allowed to hold a party programme a few days back.
Atishi said that all AAP leaders and volunteers will change their profile picture on X, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media accounts with the new one showing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal behind the bars captioned "Modi Ka Sabse Bada Dar Kejriwal".
Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his party will be asking the general public as to who should be the party's chief ministerial face in the Punjab Assembly polls, even as he indicated that his own preference for the post was state unit president Bhagwant Mann.
The Opposition on Monday targeted Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, alleging that he was deplaned from a Delhi-bound flight at the Frankfurt airport as he was 'drunk', a charge denied by the ruling AAP as baseless.
Purohit's resignation came a day after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
The Election Commission of India has initiated the process to hold the vice presidential election following Jagdeep Dhankhar's resignation. The electoral college is being constituted, and the election schedule will be announced soon.
While the BJP alleged that the arrest of its leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was part of Kejriwal's vendetta politics, the AAP rejected the charge and said that Bagga has been arrested for trying to stoke communal tension and violence in Punjba.
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.
The prospect of the Delhi chief minister's wife, Sunita Kejriwal, who has so far maintained a distance from politics, assuming a new role is also being discussed by people.
