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Charanjit Channi emerges as top choice for Punjab Congress chief amid power tussle

India Today – Top Stories

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Charanjit Channi emerges as top choice for Punjab Congress chief amid power tussle

Summary

Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi emerged as the most popular choice for the post of Punjab Congress president during consultations conducted by a three-member observers' panel, according to Congress sources, even as a fresh power tussle has erupted within the state unit over the party leadership. The development assumes significance as more than 20 sitting and former Congress MLAs, along with several senior leaders, rallied behind Channi on Friday after the party leadership decided to retain Amrinder Singh Raja Warring as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief. The observers held extensive consultations with nearly 67 leaders, including Congress Working Committee members, former ministers, MLAs, MPs and District Congress Committee presidents. According to a source, an overwhelming majority of leaders backed Channi for the post of Punjab Congress president. A senior source familiar with the consultation process told India Today that Channi enjoys considerable popularity and, when compared with other Congress leaders in the state, remains by far the most popular leader. In a post on X, Channi shared a video of Congress leader Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa speaking to the media and wrote that Congress leaders had called on him at his residence and urged him to present the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Punjab before the party high command. Reports also suggest Channi is unhappy about being overlooked for the post of state Congress chief. Ahead of the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, the Congress had replaced former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh with Channi. In the latest organisational reshuffle, the Congress retained Partap Singh Bajwa as the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly. Randhawa, who was also considered a contender for the state Congress chief's post, was appointed chairperson of the party's core committee as the Congress attempted to accommodate multiple leaders in different organisational committees ahead of the Assembly elections.

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Charanjit Channi emerges as top choice for Punjab Congress chief amid power tussle

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ECI has discretion to announce bypolls any time within six months of seat falling vacant, experts say

Subscribed with another email? However, through judicial interpretation, a third exception has been recognised — when there is a pending election petition concerning that vacant seat. For instance, the ECI’s announcement of a bypoll in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia Assembly seat on Thursday led to protests from the Congress, which questioned the “hurry” of the poll body. The seat had fallen vacant after the disqualification of the Congress’s Rajendra Bharti in April, following his conviction in a fraud case. In this case, however, an election petition by the BJP candidate was pending in the Allahabad High Court and the bypoll was scheduled only in February 2025, after the petition in the High Court was eventually withdrawn. The Supreme Court, in the Election Commission of India v. The Commission must therefore await the outcome of the election petition before proceeding with the byelection, it had said. “This interpretation is sound because an election petition may ultimately result in the court declaring another candidate to have been duly elected. Of the three vacant Lok Sabha seats, for instance, the Bashirhat seat in West Bengal has had an election petition pending since the 2024 election. Thus, despite the fact that sitting Trinamool Congress MP S.K. There are vacancies in the Rajya Sabha as well, which arose due to the resignations of three Trinamool Congress MPs last month.

thehindu.com

General U.S. News1h ago

Pope praises US history of welcoming immigrants in implicit rebuke to Trump

Pope Leo urges Americans to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence in his first major address to the US Pope Leo has used his first major address to his home country to praise the US history of ⁠welcoming migrants, urging Americans to live up to the ideals put forward in the ⁠Declaration of Independence. In his latest implicit rebuke to Donald Trump, the first US leader of the Roman Catholic church said the word “America” had become ‌a “byword for freedom” across the world because of the way the country welcomed migrants. In a speech given live from the Vatican to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia ‌as he received the Center’s Liberty Medal, Leo said he hoped that ideals of “unity, justice and peace” held by the founding fathers would guide the US as it celebrated its 250th anniversary. “This historic anniversary presents ⁠us with the opportunity to reflect once again on the nation’s founding principles in the hope that America will remain ever true ‌to the dream that has earned it the title of land of the free and home of the brave,” the pope said. Leo will mark the US’s 250th anniversary on Saturday with a brief visit to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the main entry points to Europe for people making the perilous sea crossing from north Africa in search of refuge. Leo will arrive in Lampedusa by helicopter early on Saturday morning and make his first stop at a cemetery where there are many unmarked graves of people who died during the Mediterranean journey. He will then visit the Porta d’Europa (Gateway to Europe), a migrant memorial monument, before blessing a plaque on a pier named after his late predecessor, Pope Francis, who denounced the “globalisation of indifference” when he visited the island in July 2013 on his first official papal trip. Like Francis, Leo has clashed with Trump over his immigration policies, calling in November for “deep reflection” in the US about the treatment of people held in detention. Days before Leo’s trip to Lampedusa, JD Vance, the US vice-president, said the Vatican’s views on immigration were “troubling”. He is focusing on the theme of immigration. This means reaffirming what he recently said in Spain about the dignity of every human being, but the trip is also a political message against the persecution of immigrants and what is being done by ICE (immigration enforcement agency) agents in the US. “Furthermore, it is a strong political message against all the parties in Europe who sow hatred and polarise.” Andrea Vreede, the Vatican correspondent for the Dutch broadcaster NOS, said Leo’s trip was partly to pay homage to Francis but also to make a point to Trump. “The pope is telling Trump what is important to him, and that is migrants.

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Charanjit Channi emerges as top choice for Punjab Congress chief amid power tussle

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