Congress heads for landslide victory in Zila Parishad polls
Chandigarh, Sep 22 : The ruling Congress in Punjab on Saturday won the most seats in the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections and headed for a landslide victory as counting was underway. The main opposition AAP in the state assembly faced a humiliating defeat.
Out of 113 Zila Parishad seats -- out of a total of 354 -- for which results have been declared, the Congress won 106, the BJP-Akali combine six and independents won one. The Aam Adami Party had not won a single seat.
Among prominent winners were former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee President Bibi Jagjir Kaur's daughter Ranjit Kaur; Housing Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa's son Ravi Nandan Singh Bajwa; Congress legislator Ramanjit Sikki's son-in-law Maninderjit Singh Mani; and former Congress legislator Kawaljit Singh Lally's son Mehtab Singh.
In Patiala, the home constituency of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the Congress has won 43 Panchayat Samiti seats and the Shiromani Akali Dal four.
The Akalis suffered a humiliating defeat in their home turf Muktsar as the Congress won 10 of the 13 Zila Parishad zones.
All six Zila Parishad seats in Ludhiana were won by the Congress.
The Congress won a majority in Gurdaspur by securing 154 of the total 213 Panchayat Samiti zones. In Zila Parishad, the Congress won 15 of the 25 seats and was leading in the remaining seats.
Out of the total 148 seats of the Panchayat Samiti in Bathinda, the Congress won 31, Akalis four and the AAP and independents three each. The counting for 107 seats is on.
Sporadic skirmishes, mainly between the Congress and the Akalis, were witnessed during the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls on September 19.
The voting percentage was 58 per cent.
A total of 354 Zila Parishad and 2,900 Panchayat Samiti members will be elected. There are 22 Zila Parishads and 150 Panchayat Samitis in the state.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh congratulated his party on their victory saying people had endorsed the positive development and rejected the Akalis' "malicious campaign".
Pointing out that this was the fourth consecutive humiliating defeat of the SAD-BJP combine, after back-to-back victories for the Congress in the state assembly, Urban Local Bodies, Gurdaspur parliamentary and Shahkot assembly by-polls, he termed it a vindication of his party's efforts to bring the state out of the quagmire of devastation into which it had been plunged by the previous SAD-BJP government.
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Opposition leaders hold protest in Parliament House complex over Adani issue
New Delhi (PTI): Several opposition party leaders on Tuesday held a protest in the corridors of Parliament House and raised slogans demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue.
They also hung a banner that read "We want JPC" from the first floor of Parliament building.
TMC MPs held a separate protest in Parliament complex and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi break his silence on the Adani issue.
Accusing the government of helping businessman Gautam Adani by not ordering a probe into allegations of fraud levelled against his group, the party demanded that Adani be arrested.
Leaders of opposition parties had earlier met in Parliament complex and decided to press for a JPC probe into the Adani issue.
Leaders of opposition parties, including the Congress, DMK, RJD, CPI-M, CPI, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JDU, JMM, IUML, AAP, MDMK, attended the meeting in the chamber of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge.
Both houses of Parliament were adjourned till 2 pm Tuesday amid uproar over the Adani issue and demand by ruling party members that Rahul Gandhi apologise for his democracy remarks.
"This morning Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, @kharge ji was given permission by the Chairman to speak. He got up to do so but was not allowed by sloganeering BJP MPs. Chairman then adjourned RS. How can the logjam be broken if Modi Govt behaves like this," AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter after the House was adjourned.
The opposition parties have been demanding a JPC probe into the Adani Group issue, saying only a JPC can bring out the truth in the matter, after US based Hindenburg Research report made allegations of financial irregularities and stock manipulation by the Adani Group.
The Adani group has denied the allegations and said no wrongdoing has been done by it.
