Mumbai/Chandigarh: Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal - the two remaining non-BJP constituents now left in the National Democratic Alliance - on Sunday described as unfortunate JD(U)'s pullout from the alliance, calling it a decision taken in haste. Shiv Sena, which has 11 Lok Sabha seats, also felt that the JD(U) decision will benefit the Congress.
Shiv Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, said the JD(U) decision to break away from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is unfortunate and has been taken in a haste. He said NDA will be at a loss and the decision it will benefit the Congress.
"If my party wants, I am willing to speak to JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav," Raut told reporters in Mumbai. "Today not only the alliance has broken, but our hearts are broken," he added.
SAD MP Naresh Gujral said the NDA has been certainly fractured but claimed it is a "temporary setback". The SAD has four Lok Sabha MPs. Gujral expressed confidence that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose parties were once NDA constituents, will return to the alliance and give the nation a stable government after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls....
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07:06 PM, Jun 16, 2013
Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday described as "master-stroke" the appointment of Narendra Modi as Chairman of BJP's Election Campaign Committee for the 2014 polls, and said it was a knockout punch against a "staggering" UPA government. "This (Modi as the chairman...) has already sent shock-waves in the UPA and completely demoralised it, as is borne out by nervous reactions of their leaders," the Punjab Chief...
07:19 PM, Jun 09, 2013
Chandigarh: NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal on Sunday welcomed BJP's decision to anoint Narendra Modi as Chairman of its Election Campaign Committee for the 2014 polls, saying the decision would be "catalytic" in the alliance's victory march. "The people of the country are looking towards National Democratic Alliance to save the country from the clutches of most corrupt UPA government. As Narendra Modi has been made Chairman of Poll Campaign...
05:55 PM, Jun 09, 2013
New Delhi: Several big political parties such as the Congress and BJP collect a huge amount of money from donations but it's difficult to know about the donors. While protesting against bringing them under the RTI, the parties claim they give all details about donations to the income tax department. But the truth is that the parties don't provide any information about 80 to 90 per cent of their donors....
02:17 PM, Jun 06, 2013
Chandigarh: Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine on Tuesday claimed a "clean sweep" in the zila parishad and block samiti elections. An Akali Dal spokesman said that the combine was winning a clear majority in six of the total 22 zila parishads and 43 out of 146 block samitis. "The alliance is leading in most of the seats as per the results and trends available till this evening,"...
05:24 AM, May 22, 2013
Chandigarh: A day after one person was killed immediately after an election rally in Bhatinda district, two more were gunned down on Friday in a village in Amritsar in an exchange of fire between two groups, pushing the toll in the run up to the May 19 panchayat polls in Punjab to four. Tension was brewing between two groups in Chak Mishri Khan village over a consensus to elect the...
05:43 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases in the capital. "We want that a Special Investigation Team be formed and it should probe the cases under the supervision of the Supreme Court. There are so many cases on which no action has been taken like the Nangloi case...
01:44 PM, May 08, 2013
New Delhi: A delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will be meeting President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday to submit a memorandum on the 1984 Delhi riots verdict acquitting Congress leader Sajjan Kumar of all charges. The delegation will be headed by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Massive protests resumed last week after Kumar was acquitted of all charges. The CBI will also challenge before Delhi High Court the...
10:30 AM, May 08, 2013
Bathinda: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday slammed the Congress for "shielding the culprits" of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and termed as "shameful" the "denial" of justice to the victim families. Sukhbir launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing the party of denying justice to people who were "burnt alive on streets of Delhi" by "shielding Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler." He said a delegation led by...
03:12 AM, May 08, 2013
Chandigarh: Expressing shock and anguish at acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in an anti-Sikh riots case, Shiromani Akali Dal Chief and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday attacked the Congress saying it would not be allowed to put a lid on the issue. Stating that the verdict had dashed hopes of people who waited for nearly three decades for justice, he expressed hope that the Supreme Court would...
05:17 PM, Apr 30, 2013
Panaji: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will support the prime ministerial candidate proposed by BJP, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Tuesday. "BJP being the biggest constituent of the NDA should decide on the prime ministerial candidate. Akali Dal will accept it," the SAD president said. Badal is in Goa along with party colleagues to participate in the 'Chintan Shivir' being held here. The party leaders visited Goa...
08:09 PM, Apr 09, 2013
Bajwa, Congress MP from Gurdaspur, has replaced Amarinder Singh, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said in New Delhi. The exit of Amarinder Singh, a former chief minister and scion of the erstwhile royal family of Patiala, was imminent with the latest loss of the Congress in last month's by-election on the Moga assembly seat. ...
11:29 PM, Mar 05, 2013
Two days after several policemen were caught on camera beating up a woman and her father publicly by a roadside in Tarn Taran, the Punjab DGP has now made a even more shocking statement. He has claimed that he is yet to see the video of the policemen thrashing the woman. ...
05:05 PM, Mar 05, 2013
Under pressure from the SAD leadership, Patiala Mayor Jaspal Pardhan, who has been booked by police in the murder case of a woman, has resigned. ...
11:36 AM, Feb 26, 2013
Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal on Monday asked its mayor in Patiala to resign after he was named in a murder case. "Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has directed Mayor of Patiala Municipal Corporation Jaspal Singh Pradhan to immediately tender his resignation from the post of mayor in view of the case registered against him," said party secretary Daljit Singh Cheema. ...
09:08 AM, Feb 26, 2013
Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict on death row in connection with the assassination of the former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh, has expressed his desire to be hanged. Rajoana, a Babbar Khalsa International terrorist, has in a four-page open letter said he had neither appealed for mercy nor asked anyone to do that for him. ...
12:01 PM, Feb 25, 2013
The mayor of Punjab's Patiala city and his son were on Saturday booked for the mysterious death of his daughter-in-law, police said. Mayor Jaspal Singh Pradhan, of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and his son Harpreet Singh were booked after Parampreet Kaur was founded murdered in her house. ...
10:31 AM, Feb 24, 2013
Defence officers are outraged after a gurudwara in Panchkula refused to conduct prayer ceremonies for Maha Vir Chakra winner Lt General RS Dyal, who died in 2012. The gurudwara, citing his participation in Operation Bluestar of 1984, refused to hold prayers for him. ...
02:31 PM, Jan 21, 2013
A senior Punjab Police officer was allegedly beaten up by a leader of the state's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal's youth front in a brawl at a local hotel where the cop went to attend a Christmas-eve party with three of his friends and their families. ...
08:54 PM, Dec 25, 2012
Accusing the Congress of politicising the issue of law and order for vested interests, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said Punjab is a much safer place than other states. "Punjab is a much safer place than other parts of the country," he told reporters here in an apparent reference to Congress' allegations that the law and order had deteriorated in the state. ...
06:45 PM, Dec 12, 2012
