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's wife Navjot Kaur on Friday said her husband 'gifted' the chief minister's chair to Bhagwant Mann, claiming that Arvind Kejriwal once wanted the former cricketer to lead Punjab but he chose not to betray his party.
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.
The incident occurred in Takkarpura village of Patti town on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, they said.
Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a minister in the outgoing cabinet of Amarinder Singh, is likely to be the state's new chief minister, Congress sources said on Sunday.
The committee has given its recommendations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who will take necessary action, the sources pointed out.
Based on the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC), the Union law ministry on Friday amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of "papers" or documents open to public inspection.
Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's health has become critical after 27 days of a fast-unto-death at the Khanauri border protest site. Doctors attending to him have warned that he is at risk of cardiac arrest and multi-organ failure. Dallewal, 70, began his hunger strike on November 26 to pressure the Centre to accept the agitating farmers' demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have issued a statement saying that Dallewal's immunity has become very weak due to the continuous hunger strike, putting him at risk of infection. Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi met Dallewal at the protest site on Saturday evening and conveyed the concerns expressed by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi regarding his health and well-being. The statement also said that candle marches will be taken out across the country on December 24 in support of Dallewal's hunger strike. On December 26, when Dallewal's fast will complete one month, symbolic hunger strikes will be held at tehsil and district levels.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
The upcoming Delhi Assembly elections have turned into a fierce battleground of slogans, one-liners, and AI-generated memes between the three main contenders: AAP, BJP, and Congress. From the AAP branding the BJP as the "Bharatiya Jhootha Party" (Indian Liar Party) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling the AAP "AAP-Daa" (disaster), the war of words has taken center stage. With the poll results set to be announced on February 8, the elections are being viewed as a referendum on the AAP's governance model, which emphasizes free welfare schemes. The ruling party faces stiff competition from a resurgent BJP that is seeking to return to power in the capital after a gap of more than 25 years. The Congress, although a long shot, hopes to regain its lost ground.
Kesari 2 has more style than substance on its mind, feels Sukanya Verma.
'Revanth Reddy mounted a spirited campaign in Telangana which turned around the fortunes of the Congress in six months.'
Anti-incumbency sentiment in Punjab puts SAD in a weak spot. But voters remain divided over AAP and Congress. Sahil Makkar reports.
This is a challenge India's political establishment will have to face unitedly, without looking for electoral benefit, warns Vir Sanghvi.
The former state Congress chief was jailed on May 20 last year after being sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court over the death of the 65-year-old Gurnam Singh in a road rage case in 1988.
There is a proposal from the BJP camp that they would resort to a proportion-based increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats for individual states, based on what they now have. On the face of it, this sounds like a fine argument that those demanding a 'freeze' now cannot oppose without reasons and justification, avers N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Meerut Conspiracy Case was aimed at curbing communist influence in India. However, it fueled nationwide sympathy, shaping the course of leftist politics in the country.
The proposed legislation on Emigration (Overseas Mobility (Facilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2024) seeks to replace the Emigration Act of 1983 with a view to facilitate the circular mobility of people intending to emigrate for overseas employment.
A recent pre-election survey suggests that AAP may win 53 seats in the 117-member Punjab assembly and reduce the Congress to just 43.
Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had convened an emergency meeting of newly reconstituted Council of Ministers in view of the 'Bharat Bandh' call given by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) to protest against the three agri laws, an official statement said after the cabinet meeting.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
He drew the roadmap of India's economic reform, unshackled it from the licence raj and pulled it back from the brink when even its gold reserve was pledged.
In a post on Instagram on Tuesday, Singh alleged that the administration was harassing him to prove that the child was legal.
Pardeep Singh was shot in his dairy shop at around 7 am in Kotkapura in Faridkot, the police said, adding that his security man and another person sustained bullet injuries in the incident.
The 79-year-old widely respected and popular leader steered the Congress in 2017 to a landslide victory in the 117-member assembly to occupy the chief minister's post for the second time.
The decision has come days after Bajwa and another Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Shamsher Singh Dullo, sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into the alleged illegal liquor trade in the state following the hooch tragedy that claimed over 100 lives.
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.
The Charanjit Singh Channi-led government selected the 1987 batch IPS officer out of a panel of three officers shortlisted by the Union Public Service Commission.
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
The TMC-led West Bengal government has already started laying the groundwork for the election, setting the tone with the recent Bengal Global Business Summit and the state Budget.
Navjot Singh Sidhu was not part of the Channi-led 'jatha' (group) which went to pay obeisance at the gurdwara.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge were among the top leaders who paid homage to former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his home in New Delhi on Friday.
Sidhu said there would be no need for Amarinder to go for power cuts or to regulate the office timings if the state acts "in the right direction".
The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice in the post-lunch period on Thursday as a war of words broke out between the treasury and opposition benches, triggered by Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi's spat with the Bharatiya Janata Party's Ravneet Singh Bittu.
Some reports suggest that the Centre has empowered the BSF to conduct searches, arrest suspects and make seizures up to an area of 50 km inside the Indian territory from the international border.
Despite the ongoing rift in the Punjab Congress, party leader Harish Rawat on Tuesday said that all is well in the state and expressed confidence in its victory in the forthcoming assembly polls.
'The politics that is now being played in Punjab doesn't contribute towards peace and tranquillity.'
Seasoned bureaucrat and a stickler for rules Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey will be at the helm of capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for three years. The 1987-batch Odisha-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Pandey, would replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year term ends on Friday.
