'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
Telangana Minister J Krishna Rao told reporters that the chances of survival under the circumstances are "not that good."
India has expressed concern to the US authorities over the treatment of deportees on a flight that landed on February 5, particularly with respect to the use of shackles, especially on women. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also registered its concerns regarding the need to accommodate the religious sensitivities and food preferences of the deportees. The US side has confirmed that no women or children were restrained on the deportation flights that landed in India on 15th and 16th February, 2025.
The Congress is banking on decisions like reducing electricity tariff and fuel prices, taken during current CM Charanjit Singh Channi's 111-day tenure.
Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday met senior party leaders at the AICC headquarters and said he has full faith in the leadership of party chief Sonia Gandhi and any decision taken by her will be acceptable.
The BJP may be in the Opposition in many states, but nowhere is it as divided as it is in Karnataka, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Recalling Singh as a very humble person, Kumar said, "Dr Singh used to live here. I was a child when his family shifted out. It was a very nice family." The house where the Singh family lived is in a dilapidated state now as no one stays there since they moved out a long time ago, Kumar said.
Amid the factional feud in the Punjab Congress, Sidhu will be meeting All India Congress Committee general secretary Harish Rawat and senior party leader K C Venugopal on October 14 for a discussion on organisational matters related to the party's state unit.
A political slugfest broke out on Wednesday between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cavalcade, in a major security breach, got stranded on a flyover, 30 km away from Hussainiwala in Punjab, as a group of protesting farmers blocked his route.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The Congress disciplinary committee had on April 11 given a show-cause notice to Jakhar for alleged anti-party activities and sought a reply within a week.
The party wants to give time to Sidhu, but if he does not agree, then strict steps can be taken, the sources said.
There was more to him than he let on, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
The 59-year-old was serving a one-year sentence in a 1988 road rage case.
'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
It seems that the West is sending a signal to India that it can return to old hostilities unless India toes their line on Russia. It is no surprise that India is being compared with Putin's Russia in terms of targeting 'dissidents' as the West calls these Khalistani terrorists, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
"Political leaders should not indulge in blame games at this stage. They must support the efforts of state police and the Centre," Bitta said.
This will be the 49-year-old JMM leader's fourth stint as chief minister. Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes in the recent assembly polls.
Pargat Singh, Raj Kumar Verka, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Kuljit Nagra and Rana Gurjit Singh are likely to be included in the cabinet, according to the sources.
The AAP suffered a humiliating defeat in Haryana with most of its candidates set to lose their security deposit.
Haryana is witnessing a multi-cornered contest this time, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party facing anti-incumbency and a resurgent Congress.
Panthic politics came easily to Parkash Singh Badal. But he was quick to abandon it when it became a problem, points out Aditi Phadnis.
A few former MLAs, considered to be his loyalists and a few supporters, turned up at Sidhu's residence in Patiala Friday morning to extend moral support to him.
Punjab Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra has come under fire from several quarters after he was seen forcing the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) to lie on a dirty mattress at a hospital.
Both the BJP and Congress understand that coalitions and alliances are not just about numbers, but have symbolic value.
The Punjab cabinet has approved the summoning of a special session of the assembly on September 22 to bring a confidence motion.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Bareta, who was one of the accused in the incidents related to the desecration of a religious text in Faridkot in 2015, was declared a proclaimed offender.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking action against Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for his claims about his wife's recovery from stage 4 cancer, emphasizing the right to free speech. The court stated that Sidhu's claims were merely opinions and could be countered by others through free speech, not legal action. The petitioner argued that Sidhu's claims about the efficacy of certain dietary remedies could mislead the public, but the court asserted that if Sidhu's wife, a doctor herself, felt better with a specific diet, it was her prerogative. The court further suggested that the petitioner focus on issues like alcohol and cigarette consumption if truly concerned about public interest.
Singh (80) had floated the Punjab Lok Congress last year after quitting the Congress.
Despite being lodged in prison, Bishnoi has allegedly managed to execute murders of many high-profile people, including Punjabi singer Siddhu Moosewala in 2022, Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi in 2023, besides orchestrating firing outside the residences of singers A P Dhillon and Gippy Garewal in Canada, the officer said.
The Congress also fielded former Patiala mayor Vishnu Sharma from the Patiala assembly seats against its former leader Amarinder Singh.
The collapse of a three-storey building in Punjab's Mohali has claimed two lives, with rescuers pulling out the body of a man and a fatally injured woman from under the rubble during a multi-agency 23-hour rescue operation that concluded Sunday evening, officials said.
Modi also attacked the Congress for charging him with corruption in the Rafale deal.
The Congress and the AAP fought the Lok Sabha polls together in Delhi while they had contested separately in Punjab.
Several party hoppers including Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa and Anil Joshi were trailing from their respective constituencies in Punjab, according to poll trends.
The Shiromani Akali Dal-Sanyukt will contest on 17 seats.
JMM leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand in a grand ceremony in Ranchi, amid the presence of a galaxy of INDIA bloc leaders. This is Soren's fourth stint as chief minister. The JMM-led alliance won a majority in the recent assembly polls, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly.
Kejriwal's centralised way of governance might work in Delhi, but Punjab will call for delegation, observes Sanjeev Nayyar.
