Chandigarh, Feb 18 (IANS) Ahead of polling for the Assembly elections, five-time Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal on Friday said the party is poised for a triumphant return.
"Great finish by the SAD-BSP," said the 94-year-old Badal, who is in fray from Lambi and aiming for the sixth consecutive win.
"The results will surprise many armchair analysts. We knew that the Congress campaign was a disaster from the start and AAP claims were a social media bubble and a repeat of 2017 false bravado.
"The AAP's anti-Punjab and anti-farmers stance in the Supreme Court has killed them. We kept our ears to the ground, our shoulder on the wheel and worked hard at grassroots. We have peaked at the right time. We are the only party smiling at the end of the campaign. We are poised for a triumphant return," Badal added.
The accused, identified as Ashish Kumar, tied his wife Ranjan Devi and son Vaibhav to the bed and set them on fire at his house in Mayurwa locality, which comes under the Triveniganj police station.
Nearly 100 students and resident doctors of the Government Medical College in Patiala in Punjab have tested positive for Covid-19, officials said on Tuesday. A retirement party and New Year Eve's party held on the college campus without following appropriate Covid-19 behaviour is blamed for alarming spike in the cases.
With 192 new cases of highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron detected in the last 24 hours, India's Omicron tally on Tuesday rose to 1,892 cases. Maharashtra and Delhi continue to be the worst-hit states with this new variant.
Badal in a statement here listed five major issues on which he said a prime ministerial package would lend credence and respectability to Modi's visit to Punjab on January 5. The former CM also drew the PM's attention to thousands of Sikh families awaiting justice for the massacre of 1984.
Addressing a gathering of Anganwadi workers in Morinda town, the Chief Minister declared that from now onwards the monthly emoluments of the Anganwadi workers stand increased from Rs 8,100 to Rs 9,500, mini-Anganwadi workers from Rs 5,300 to Rs 6,300 and helpers from Rs 4,050 to Rs 5,100.
Amid a surge in Coronavirus cases, the Delhi government on Tuesday decided to impose a weekend curfew from January 8. During weekdays, the metros and buses will run at full seating capacity with strict adherence to Covid-19 guidelines.
