Chandigarh: The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance made a clean sweep in the municipal election in Punjab on Sunday winning four municipal corporations, three municipal councils and 26 nagar panchayats, an official said.
Stray incidents of violence, including a firing incident in Ludhiana city, and clashes between Akali Dal and Congress workers were reported at some places. Tension prevailed in Patiala city, 80 km from Chandigarh, as Congress and Akali Dal workers clashed.
One person was critically injured in a firing incident on the outskirts of Ludhiana city.
Results of the election, polling for which was held Sunday 8 am-4 pm, were declared late in the evening....
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07:53 AM, Jun 11, 2012
New Delhi: Eighty seven-year-old Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday took oath as Punjab Chief Minister. This is Badal's fifth term as the Chief Minister. Badal's son Sukhbir will remain his deputy. Badal's 18-member cabinet includes 14 colleagues from his party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The remaining four are from its ally, the BJP. All the seventeen ministers are of cabinet rank, including Sukhbir. The Badal family has four members...
11:31 AM, Mar 14, 2012
New Delhi: A host of leaders across party lines are expected to descend in Chandigarh on Wednesday to attend Parkash Singh Badal's swearing-in ceremony. But Mamata Banerjee will not be among them. The Trinamool Chief had initially accepted Badal's invitation but changed her mind on Tuesday. This will be 87-year-old Badal's fifth term as Chief Minister. His son Sukhbir will remain his deputy. Badal's 18-member cabinet will include 14 colleagues...
06:16 AM, Mar 14, 2012
Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh turned 70 on Sunday, but the euphoria of celebration was missing. Having just led his party to a second consecutive loss in the assembly elections in just five years, his failure was, no doubt, uppermost on everyone's minds. While the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal basks in the glory of its historic victory, having become the only party in over four decades to get a...
02:21 PM, Mar 12, 2012
Chandigarh: When the newly-elected Punjab assembly meets for the first time later this month, it will look more like a millionaires club than a legislature. The 117-member house has no less than 101 crorepatis, data analysed by NGO Punjab Election Watch (PEW) has revealed. The affidavits submitted by Punjab politicians who have made it to the assembly in the 2012 elections, revealed that the new assembly has 86 percent legislators...
02:09 PM, Mar 12, 2012
Chandigarh: Notwithstanding the bitter political wrangling between them during the high-octane poll process in Punjab, SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal has decided to invite his political rival Congress' Amarinder Singh for his swearing-in as chief minister for the fifth term. Besides Amarinder, CLP leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal's name also figures in the list of invitees for the swearing-in ceremony on March 14 at Chappar Chiri in Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali)...
02:59 PM, Mar 11, 2012
Chennai: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday invited his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa to participate in his swearing-in ceremony on March 14. The AIADMK supremo, however, expressed her inability to attend the ceremony as she was scheduled to undertake campaign for the March 18 Sanakarankoil assembly bypoll on that day. Having conveyed her inability to attend the swearing-in ceremony though she would have liked to, Jayalalithaa said...
02:46 PM, Mar 10, 2012
Amritsar: Former deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly, Darbari Lal feels that the Congress has suffered a drubbing in the Assembly elections due to "wrong allocation" of tickets by the state party unit. Lal, who was denied the Congress ticket in this election, says, "The major reason for the party's defeat is that, most candidates in the fray did not deserve party tickets as they were not fit to contest elections."...
11:48 AM, Mar 10, 2012
Kolkata: At a time when non-Congress chief ministers have come together on some issues, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has invited his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee to his swearing in ceremony on March 14. "Badal telephoned Banerjee on Friday and invited her to attend his swearing-in as chief minister at Chandigarh," state secretariat sources here said. Mamata and other non Congress chief ministers had come together in opposing...
10:32 PM, Mar 09, 2012
Chandigarh: Putting at rest all speculation, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday declared that Parkash Singh Badal will remain the Chief Minister of Punjab, a post he would be holding for a record fifth time. "I had declared it well in advance that Badal will be the Chief Minister," SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal told reporters at the chief minister's official residence in Chandigarh. Sukhbir said that the swearing-in ceremony...
07:40 PM, Mar 08, 2012
Chandigarh: Akali stalwart Parkash Singh Badal will be sworn in as Punjab Chief Minister on March 14 for a record fifth time with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) electing him as its Legislature party leader unanimously on Thursday, ending all speculation over the leadership issue. "I had declared it well in advance that Badal will be the Chief Minister," SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal told reporters at the chief minister's official...
04:45 PM, Mar 08, 2012
Yogendra Yadav of CSDS answers viewers' questions on post-poll survey and election results. ...
11:00 PM, Mar 07, 2012
Will the policy paralysis get worse? Or is there a possibility that Dr Manmohan Singh could take radical initiatives? ...
09:26 PM, Mar 07, 2012
Chandigarh: It was an election fought in the name of one Badal but led from the front by another, a two-pronged strategy that propelled the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to a record consecutive term. The million-dollar political question now is - which Badal will be the next chief minister of Punjab? The Akali Dal sought votes from the electorate in the name of four-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. But...
12:21 PM, Mar 07, 2012
New Delhi: Congress will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the poll debacle in the four state. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are expected to attend the meeting at around 11 am. Performance of Congress, which had banked on the charisma and aggressive campaigning by Rahul Gandhi, was dismal in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The outcome of the Assembly polls in five states could be a...
09:34 AM, Mar 07, 2012
Chandigarh: The BJP can breathe easy in Punjab as its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal has created history by becoming the first coalition government to beat anti-incumbency and return to power. The Congress faced a clear defeat and Manpreet Badal's Punjab People's Party even failed to open their account. The incumbent Akalis led by son Sukhbir and 84-year-old father Prakash Singh Badal are the first to win a second...
06:57 AM, Mar 07, 2012
The SP gained absolute majority while the Congress finished fourth in UP polls. Rahul Gandhi, who was the face of the party in the poll campaign in UP, has acknowledged the defeat. ...
10:43 PM, Mar 06, 2012
Chandigarh: Out of total 93 women candidates contesting the 117-seat Punjab Assembly polls, only 14 of them managed to win. SAD had fielded 10, BJP three, Congress 11 and Peoples Party of Punjab (PPP) three women. Maximum six women each of SAD and Congress returned home victorious in comparison to two of BJP and none of the Peoples Party of Punjab. Former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal of Congress was...
09:58 PM, Mar 06, 2012
New Delhi: As Congress suffered a major blow in the elections to five states, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Tuesday claimed that the opposition to an effective Lokpal cost the party dearly and took a dig at its top leaders. In her tweets, Bedi said when the Congress started to use power "to discredit" anti-corruption movement, it put its own grassroot workers on the defencive. "Congress appeared to be...
08:33 PM, Mar 06, 2012
New Delhi: Yoga guru Ramdev on Tuesday sought to claim victory in Congress's poor show in the Assembly elections, and announced another round of anti-government protest on black money during the monsoon session of Parliament. Claiming that the verdict of the people's court was clearly against corruption and Congress's reluctance to act on the demand of bringing back the black money stashed in foreign banks, Ramdev said Congress was now...
08:18 PM, Mar 06, 2012
