The biggest winner will be the BJP -- which has such a small presence that every incremental vote it gets can only increase its strength. But the man who will win despite losing everything will be Captain Amarinder Singh, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party's nationalism is "fake" and "they are not patriots".
Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 10 ministers at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.
Seeking justice for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, leaders of various political parties on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention in directing the government to order a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe into the violence.
Asserting that "the BJP first set Hindus against Muslims", Badal said the party has "become the most powerful divisive force", out to "replay its evil game in Punjab".
The 58-year-old surrendered shortly after 4 pm, and was taken for the mandatory medical examination, conducted at the Mata Kaushalya Hospital.
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.
Amid the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, a heated argument broke out between Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday when the former accused the latter of getting the farm laws enacted while she was a minister in the Union Cabinet, and added that she 'doing drama' over the laws and showing 'fake support' to the farmers' cause.
With the Monsoon Session drawing to a close, Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance on Friday held a demonstration in Parliament House complex demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation, cancellation of coal blocks, and a fair probe and declared that it will now take this agitation to the streets.
Following the death of Lok Janshakti Party leader and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramdas Athawale of Republican Party of India is the lone member from the Bharatiya Janata Party allies in the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
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'.
Haryana Jail Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala also said, "Gurmeet Ram Rahim is like every other prisoner here and he also has his fundamental rights."
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Joginerpal Jain on Thursday wrested the Moga assembly seat defeating his nearest Congress rival by 18,845 votes.
Wooing voters for his party candidate in the Moga assemby byelection, Shiromani Akali Dal patriach and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday regaled the crowds with his wit and sarcasm mainly directed at his political opponents.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said the session of the state assembly will be summoned on September 27.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday visited Rampura village and met the family of the policeman who was shot dead allegedly by a local Shiromani Akali Dal leader after he resisted the harassment of his daughter by the politician and his aides. Badal met the family members of slain Assistant Sub-inspector Ravinderpal Singh and expressed his condolences.
Police have arrested one more accused allegedly involved in the killing of an assistant sub-inspector after he objected to the harassment of his daughter by a local Shiromani Akali Dal leader and his accomplices.
Both the BJP and Congress understand that coalitions and alliances are not just about numbers, but have symbolic value.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's controversial move honouring family members of the two assassins of General A S Vaidya in the Golden Temple complex came in for attack from the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday.
Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict on death row in connection with the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has said that he did not want anyone to defend him.
Under pressure from the leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Patiala Mayor Jaspal Pardhan, who has been booked by the police in the murder case of a woman, has resigned. Pardhan's son Preetinder Singh told PTI that his father had late on Monday night sent the resignation letter to party secretary and spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema after the ruling SAD asked him to resign on moral grounds.
He asserted that the government purchase of farm produce will remain, adding that the mechanism of minimum support price will continue in the same way it always has.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India, Samajwadi Party, Shiromani Akali Dal have decided to join forces to oppose the government's move to hike the diesel prices every month for the next one year and also increase the price of gas cylinders by Rs 50 to cut down the cost of subsidy.
Besides Kejriwal, no other chief minister will be present in the oath-taking ceremony, according to AAP sources.
Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal said his party would abide by any decision taken by the National Democratic Alliance regarding the upcoming Presidential election.
The BJP's vote share in Punjab has been declining -- 8.21 per cent in 2007 to 7.13 per cent in 2012, and finally to 5.4 per cent in 2017, when it won just three of 23 seats the party contested. So doing an election deal with Amarinder and a political formation he might float in the future is not inconceivable.
Amid separatist slogans and "honouring" of death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, the 28th anniversary of Operation Bluestar to flush out militants from Sikh holy shrine the Golden Temple, was on Wednesday observed at Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat, an event from which Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal kept away.
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.
A senior cabinet minister in the Punjab government and his delegation came under attack in New York as hundreds of Sikhs protesting his visit allegedly threw stones and hurled a shoe at the leaders, following which the police took two youths into custody.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Ranjit Singh Rana and another co-accused were on Thursday arrested in the case of gunning down of an assistant sub inspector of Punjab police while saving his daughter from eve teasers.
"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.
Raut also highlighted that the party had goodwill toward the opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
The Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine is heading for a clean sweep in the Zila Parishad and Block Samiti polls with winning 14 Zila Parishad and 130 Block Samiti seats and leading in most of the seats as per the results and trends available till noon on Tuesday.
'I won't be surprised if a third alternative to Badal and the Congress is swept to power in Punjab in 2022.'
Former Punjab Member of Legislative Assembly Malkit Singh Keetu on Monday died after he was shot at allegedly by his nephew in Moga district over a property dispute, a senior police official 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 execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a co-accused in the killing of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995, is taking political connotations in the state even as top leadership of main parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress treaded cautiously on the issue here in Chandigarh.
Accusing the government of large scale corruption, Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha on Thursday asked it to disclose the names of those who have stashed unaccounted money in foreign banks.
Several luminaries of Indian politics are descending in Lucknow to attend the historic swearing-in ceremony of 38-year-old Akhilesh Yadav as the youngest ever chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday.
Even as Sidhu parries queries on whether he would join the AAP, dissent is brewing in Arvind Kejriwal's party.
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