Chandigarh Apr 22 PTI Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday said the party lost the Punjab elections because of the mafia raj that prevailed in the state and it now needed to reinvent itself while praising Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as a younger brother and an honest man He said he will support Mann whose Aam Aadmi Party trounced the Congress in the recent assembly polls if he fights against the mafia He is an honest man Sidhu told reporters at the sidelines of an event where Amrinder Singh Raja Warring took charge as the state Congress president Sidhu had resigned from the same post after the partys defeat in the Punjab elections The Congress has to reinvent itself the former cricketer said I did not speak earlier but everybody has a right to speak and I say today that the Congress lost because of the five-year rule of the mafia raj he added Sidhu said he has always fought against the mafia Though he did not elaborate Sidhu has in the past criticised his own Congress government in the state over alleged mafias in sand-mining transport and cable TV sectors My fight was not against any individual It was against the system and against some persons who were eating into the state like termites he said He said his fight is for Punjabs existence and not for any post Till the time politics remain a business it will not be respected he said When Punjab becomes mafia-free the state will rise Sidhu said he considered Mann his younger brother whom will support in the fight against the mafia He is an honest man I have never raised a finger at him If he fights against it my support is with him even rising above party lines because it is a fight for Punjabs existence In a tweet later he said The Congress will have to reinvent to come back to power Honest faces with moral authority and integrity will be the propellers We are fighting a battle of existence for this great state Its either the Mafia or Honest people he tweeted For months before the elections Sidhu had been questioning the leadership of the then chief minister Amarinder Singh He also directed barbs at Charanjit Singh Channi who took over as the CM ahead of the elections The AAP stormed to power after winning 92 seats out of 117 while the Congress got just 18 Following the partys drubbing in the five states that went to polls earlier this year Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had asked the party chiefs there to resign PTI CHS SUN VSD ASH ASH

Mohali (Punjab) [India], February 13 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha has said that a state can not develop if it's led by a person like Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi who has been raided by Enforcement Directorate in connection with an illegal sand mining case.

Malerkotla (Punjab) [India], January 24 (ANI): With less than a month to go for Punjab Assembly polls and political battles intensifying as the polling date of February 20 is inching closer, most of the people of Malerkotla, the only Muslim-dominated constituency in the state, said that they are satisfied with the work of the sitting Congress MLA Razia Sultana.

Chandigarh : The Punjab Government appointed senior advocate Deepinder Singh Patwalia as the new Advocate General on Friday, in replacement of APS Deol who resigned on November 1. The post had fallen vacant since then. This recruitment comes amid the wake of demand for his ouster by state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. A service matters lawyer, 47-year-old Patwalia is the son of former Supreme Court judge Kuldeep Singh. An alumnus of Panjab University, he was designated as a senior advocate by the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2014.

A day after the sudden exit of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Congress chief, CM Charanjit Singh Channi said that the state party leaders should sit down and talk about the ongoing crisis. Channi added that he has also spoken to the miffed leader on Wednesday Sidhu’s resignation was followed by a flurry of […]

Chandigarh Sep 29 PTI Breaking his silence a day after abruptly resigning as the Punjab Congress chief Navot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday raised questions over the appointments of the director general of police and the states advocate generalPlunging the Congress into a fresh crisis months ahead of the assembly elections in the state Sidhu put in his papers on Tuesday shortly after the allocation of portfolios to the new ministers of the Charanjit Singh Channi cabinetTaking to Twitter a day later Sidhu said his objective had always been to improve the lives of people and to make a differenceMy fight is for the issues and an agenda of Punjab he said in an over four-minute video clip shared on his Twitter handleApparently referring to senior IPS officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota who has been given the additional charge of the director general of Punjab Police Sidhu said When I see those who gave clean chit to Badals six years backsuch persons have been given the responsibility for delivering justice Sahota was the head of a special investigation team formed in 2015 by the then Akali government to probe the sacrilege incidentsSidhu also apparently questioned the appointment of A P S Deol as the states new advocate generalThose who secured blanket bails they are advocate general he saidDeol is a senior advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and has been a counsel for former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini He had been representing the ex-top cop in various cases against him PTI CHS SUN VSD IJT

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], September 20 (ANI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday congratulated Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi on being sworn in as 16th chief minister of Punjab.

Chandigarh Sep 20 PTI Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Charanjit Singh Channi as chief minister of Punjab on Monday party sources saidChanni who is set to take oath at 11 am paid obeisance at a gurdwara in Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar district on Monday morning He will be the first Dalit to hold the post in the stateThe Congress on Sunday picked Channi as the next chief minister of PunjabAfter having picked Channi as the next chief minister of Punjab the Congress is likely to pick two senior leaders from the state as Deputy CMsA tweet from senior Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal who is AICC treasurer revealed the names of two senior leaders and outgoing ministers in the previous Amarinder Singhs cabinet -- Brahm Mohindra and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa -- as the partys choice for the Deputy chief ministers posts While Mohindra is the Hindu face of the party Randhawa is the Jat faceMohindra was considered a close confidant of former Chief Minister Amarinder SinghHeartiest congratulations to Charanjit channi for elevation asPunjabCM andBrahm Mohindra Sukhjinder INC as Dy CMs Best wishes for their grand success in the services of Punjab under the leadership of Smt Sonia Gandhi and Sh Rahul Gandhi Bansal a former MP from Chandigarh tweetedChanni on Sunday had met Governor Banwarilal Purohit to stake claim to the top job in the poll-bound state soon after being elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature PartyAmarinder Singh was nudged into quitting ostensibly over his failure to fulfil the promises made by the party in the 2017 assembly pollsPTI CHSSUN VSD DV DV

Chandigarh [India], September 19 (ANI): Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday congratulated Charanjit Singh Channi soon after he was unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party.

Chandigarh [India], September 19 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi congratulated the Chief Minister-elect of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday for the new responsibility, and said Congress will continue to fulfil the promises made to the people of the state.