Hours after Congress leader Manish Tewari on Thursday said the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw refuted the charge and termed it a "normal bill".
Replying to a question, she said people voted for him with expectations that he would work for their welfare.
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.
He also said Congress is a "sinking ship" and people should not board it as it would not help them reach anywhere.
Besides Kejriwal, no other chief minister will be present in the oath-taking ceremony, according to AAP sources.
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
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.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal mounted a blazing campaign in the hot summer after he was released from the Tihar jail on interim bail on May 10, drawing huge crowds at rallies and roadshows, but it proved insufficient to propel his Aam Aadmi Party past the Bharartiya Janata Party challenge in the national capital.
Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh has distanced himself from his mother's statement in which she had said that her son was not a Khalistani supporter, according to a statement issued by the Khadoor Sahib MP.
The Haryana assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution seeking the completion of the SYL canal and the transfer of Hindi-speaking areas from Punjab, while denouncing the neighbouring state for staking its claim over Chandigarh.
The protest was held on the university campus located at Ludhiana-Chandigarh road past midnight.
Sidhu's meeting with Gandhi lasted for more than 30 minutes and had come at a time when the Congress has finalised half of its candidates for the coming assembly elections in Punjab.
Sidhu in his affidavit, filed along with the nomination papers, declared total assets worth Rs 44.63 crore.
Amid sporadic violence that left a 16-year-old boy dead and around 10 injured, nearly 77 per cent of 1.76 crore voters on Monday exercised their franchise under tight security to elect 117 members to the Punjab assembly.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's unexpected announcement on Sunday that he will resign after two days drew mixed reactions from parties, with some saying it was a compulsion due to bail restrictions on his functioning and others hailing it as a right call to go back to the people.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the party will go into the Punjab assembly polls with a CM face and the decision on it will be taken soon after consulting party workers.
The Congress had last month written to Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging "security breaches" during the Yatra in the national capital and demanded immediate steps to ensure the security of Gandhi and others taking part in the yatra.
It was only last month that Ranaut faced backlash for advocating the return of the three farm laws repealed in 2021.
Punjab Congress chief and former chief minister Amrinder Singh on Friday visited the Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa and met its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to seek the support of the sect followers in favour of his party for the January 30 assembly polls.
The defeat in the elections has put a question mark on the five-time MP and former Union minister's political future.
As many as eight exit polls -- ABP News-CVoter, ETG Research, India Today- Axis My India, India TV-CNX, Zee News-DESIGNBOXED, India News, News 24 Today's Chanakya and Republic P-MARQ -- predicted 240-plus seats for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, earmarking an average seat of the party with its allies in the state at 241 out of the total of 403 seats.
Ten ministers were inducted into the Mann-led cabinet on Saturday.
'Several leaders leaving the party in quick succession tell us that something is very wrong with the oldest party'
The Punjab police on Wednesday said it will question jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi after bringing him to the state in connection with the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.
Congress MLA Mamman Khan has been named an accused in an FIR lodged after the August 31 Nuh violence, the Haryana government told the high court on Thursday, also claiming that the police have the phone call records and other evidence to back the move.
Hailing the Congress manifesto as a visionary document promising to shape a better future for Punjab, Dr Singh said the Parkash Singh Badal-led government mismanaged the state and failed to harness its full potential.
Meanwhile, Navjot Singh Sidhu again launched an attack on the former CM.
The meeting assumes significance as the party high command has been trying to resolve the internal rift in the Punjab unit of the Congress and there is talk of its revamp, with just months to go for the assembly polls.
Union Minister and Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday blamed a "foreign hand" behind the turmoil in Punjab over the recent incidents of desecration of a Sikh holy book and said the government will expose such elements.
Punjab faces many mortal threats. For most of these the people of Punjab are themselves responsible. And unless they take a brutal hard look within, their future generations have to be resigned to continue living with this constant slide, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party leaders met the governor in Chandigarh on Thursday, demanding the dismissal of the state's home minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and the police chief over the security breach during the prime minister's visit to Punjab.
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.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said the session of the state assembly will be summoned on September 27.
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.
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.
A debt-stressed farmer, who recently met Rahul Gandhi and told him about agrarian problems, on Wednesday allegedly committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance.
He said people of Punjab can make him 'personally accountable' for all the works.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and all 117 party candidates in Punjab will pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and sit down for a langar on Thursday.
Announcing the decision, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh welcomed them in the party fold, saying Congress will be further strengthened ahead of the Punjab assembly elections with the joining of like-minded people.
Scores of Punjab farmers protesting against the government over various issues, including a bonus on wheat and beginning paddy sowing from June 10, spent the night on the road after they were stopped from marching towards Chandigarh.
