New Delhi/Chandigarh, Nov 10 (IANS) Amid crisis, the Congress in poll-bound Punjab is all set to welcome an MLA from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who has resigned from the party.
AAP is one of the main challengers of the Congress in the state.
After a late night meeting on Tuesday with Congress leaders Harish Chaudhary and Navjot Singh Sidhu, AAP MLA from Bathinda Rural Rupinder Kaur Ruby quit the party and tweeted: "Mr.@ArvindKejriwal ji Convener, AAP & @BhagwantMann ji this is hereby inform u that I am resigning with immediate effect from the membership of Aam Aadmi Party. Please accept my resignation. Thx Rupinder Kaur Ruby.(MLA Bti.rural)"
The Congress, which is reeling under infighting between factions, got a slight relief on Tuesday after the Congress, giving in to Sidhu's pressure, accepted the resignation of Advocate General A.P.S. Deol -- a decision that is being seen in political circles as lessening the "friction" between Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and Congress state chief Navjot Sidhu.
Sidhu has been demanding the replacement of Deol, who had represented former Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in cases related to the 2015 sacrilege and subsequent police firing on protesters.
Earlier, Sidhu had tweeted: "Technically, any lawyer can become AG and any IPS officer can become DG but if we talk about morals and ethics of government, as we promised to the people of Punjab that we will give justice to them in sacrilege cases."
The area has been cordoned off and additional forces have reached the spot. Police said the terrorists involved in firing have been trapped and an operation has been started by the police and security forces.
Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Anurag Thakur, Bhupender Yadav, V. Muraleedharan and Arjun Ram Meghwal held a joint press conference at the Shastri Bhavan here on Thursday and condemned the 'unruly' and 'violent' behaviour of the opposition parties led by the Congress.
Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states as well as where the party is in power as part of an alliance, including Tamil Nadu's M.K. Stalin (DMK), Maharashtra's Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren (JMM) will also be invited.
Besides, the All India Congress Committee, the Maharashtra and Mumbai verified Congress handles, that of Congress Legislative Party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Mumbai Congress President Bhai Jagtap, state party social media head Abhijeet Sapkal, and around 500 other leaders at various level have been blocked on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the state roadways bus that fell into a 500 metre deep gorge following the massive landslide was recovered this morning, rescuers said.
Senior Home Ministry officials on Thursday reviewed the status of the investigations in the two rape cases in Delhi with officials of the Delhi Police. The review was done on the instructions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the officials said.
