Punjab: Former BJP MLA Arun Narang joins AAP
Chandigarh (PTI): Former BJP MLA from Abohar constituency Arun Narang on Wednesday joined the Aam Aadmi Party here.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann inducted Narang into the party, according to an AAP statement.
Narang was elected from the Abohar Assembly seat after defeating Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar during the state 2017 elections.
He had opposed Jakhar's appointment as the Punjab BJP chief in July.
After welcoming Narang into the party, Mann said the AAP family is growing in Punjab.
Narang's joining the AAP will strengthen the party in Abohar and its surrounding areas, he added.
The AAP said Narang was impressed by the "pro-people" policies of the AAP government, said the statement.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
