Aam Aadmi Party

"On the orders of the PMO, the police entered the stage of Delhi government's 'Van Mahotsav' event's closing ceremony and put up a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said. Rai alleged that the police forcibly entered the event which was scheduled for Sunday evening and also threatened to arrest the AAP workers if they removed the Prime Minister's poster from the stage.

The AAP, which is making a foray, beyond its base in Delhi and now Punjab, into Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, is the only party which can stand up to the BJP and its misuse of central agencies against political opponents, says senior leader Raghav Chadha. In an interview with IANS, Raghav Chadha, the party's newly-elected MP from Punjab and one of those who have been around the days of India Against Corruption (IAC), talks about the party's aims in Punjab, expansion plans, and other political issues.

While the Arvind Keriwal-led AAP bagged one Mayoral post besides winning around half-a-dozen municipal wards, Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM also made an impressive entry into state politics by winning as many as six municipal wards. After the second phase of counting on Wednesday, results of five municipal corporations -- Rewa, Katni, Morena, Dewas and Ratlam -- were announced, in which the AAP managed to win one municipal ward while the AIMIM won three municipal wards.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which recently swept the Assembly elections in Punjab, made a stunning entry in Madhya Pradesh after winning the Mayoral post in Singrauli Municipal Corporation. So far in Madhya Pradesh, only two national parties -- BJP and Congress -- have had a say in state politics, and AAP's entry will surely ring alarm bells for these two decades-old outfits.

Results for 11 of the 16 Municipal Corporations were announced late on Sunday.  BJP has won the post of mayor in five municipal corporations - Bhopal, Indore, Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar and Ujjain, while the Congress registered wins in three - Gwalior and Jabalpur and Chhindwara. 

The Presidential poll is scheduled to be held on July 18 as the tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24. The decision was taken in party's top-most national-level body Political Affairs Committee meeting held at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Saturday.

The petition, filed by advocate Jagmohan Singh Bhatti, contended that the appointment was illegal, arbitrary and in exercise of "non-existent" laws of the Central and state governments. It also argued that the appointment of Chadha was in violation of the Constitution as he is an "outsider and not a part of the state Legislative Assembly".

The paperless Budget, with focus on agriculture, education and health, proposed to earn Rs 95,378.28 crore this fiscal, against an expenditure of Rs 1,55,859.78 crore. This means a revenue deficit of Rs 12,553.80 crore. It proposed Rs 20,122 crore to be spent on the payment of interest on state's loans. However, the total debt servicing will take Rs 36,068.67 crore of the state's earnings.

Gurmail Singh, who is the AAP's Sangrur district in-charge, lost the seat, a stronghold of now Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, to Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar candidate Simranjit Singh Mann by a margin of over 5,800 votes. Simranjit Mann was last elected from the same seat in 1999. The bypoll was held as Bhagwant Mann resigned after he was elected as an MLA in the March Assembly elections and became the Chief Minister.

Special judge Geetanjali Goel rejected the bail plea. On June 14, the special CBI court in the national capital had reserved its order on the bail application after hearing the arguments of the ED and defence counsel. A day earlier, the Minister's custody to the ED had been extended by two weeks.