Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday resigned from his post citing personal reasons. In his letter to President Draupadi Murmu, Purohit requested the President to accept his resignation from the post of Governor of Punjab as well as the Union territory of Chandigarh.

The resignation of Purohit occurred amidst tension with the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, as they have been fighting over assent to pending bills, now being handled by the Supreme Court.

The governor and CM Mann have been engaged in a war of words for the last few months over several issues related to pending bills.

Last year in August, Purohit sent a strongly worded letter to the Mann government, warning him that he could recommend the President’s rule in the state and also initiate criminal proceedings if his letters were not answered.

Recently, he said Mann’s government was not responding to his previous letter and warned him that he could send a report to the President on the failure of the constitutional mechanism.

In his response, Mann said that the Governor had threatened the peace-loving people of the state and that law and order were in complete control.

CM Mann said the majority of letters sent by the Governor have been answered.

Earlier in October, Purohit wrote a letter to Mann regarding the Tarn Taran illegal mining incident and sought a detailed report following the same.

In the latter, he also mentioned the allegation of an MLA about corruption in the police, the involvement of the MLA’s close relative in illegal mining, and the suspension of police officials and the subsequent transfer of SSP Tarn Taran.

On Friday, Purohit had a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Chandigarh. Their meeting occurred shortly after the BJP’s sweeping win in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, where they retained all three positions, a loss for the Congress-Aam Aadmi Party alliance, who claimed the presiding officer manipulated the ballot papers.

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Amid several speculations, Janata Dal (United) supremo Nitish Kumar on Sunday resigned as the Bihar chief minister after breaking all the ties with the Mahagathbandhan to rejoin Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Today, CM Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar at Raj Bhavan in Patna. While speaking to the media, Nitish Kumar said his party has decided to sever ties with the Mahagathbandhan comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.

The Governor Arlekar accepted the resignation of Nitish Kumar and deputed him as the Acting Chief Minister.

Speaking to reporters, Nitish Kumar said he has resigned as the Chief Minister today and he met the Bihar Governor and told him to dissolve the government in the state, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar said.

The acting CM further said that this situation came as everything in the alliance was not alright. I was getting views from everyone. I listened to all of them. Today, the Government has been dissolved, JD(U) chief said.

Nitish Kumar would form a JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar after joining the NDA alliance, as per the reports.

Speaking on Nitish Kumar’s resignation, Union Minister and BJP MP Giriraj Singh said that whatever the compulsion of Nitish Kumar, Bihar was perplexed if there was a Jungle Raj 2-like situation in 1 and a half years.

The minister further said that if Tejashwi Yadav had sat on the CM position, it would have been very difficult. I was concerned about just one thing now, I was apprehensive that with the kind of pressure that Lalu Yadav was putting on him for the Tajposhi of Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar would have had a jungle raj again, Giriraj Singh added. BJP won’t allow jungle raj in Bihar, the BJP MP further added.

On the resignation of Bihar CM, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said that this was bound to happen. When Nitish Kumar joined the Opposition bloc INDIA alliance to become the PM, nobody accepted him there. He must have thought about saving his position, Minister Rajbhar said.

Following Nitish Kumar’s resignation as Bihar CM, the  Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi held a meeting with party leaders in Patna.

Meanwhile, Congress hit out at the JD(U) president Nitish Kumar and compared him to a ‘Chameleon’ and said people of state will never forgive his betrayal.

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Vinod Sharma, the BJP’s state spokesperson for Bihar, submitted his resignation from the party on Thursday over the ethnic unrest in Manipur because he felt stigmatised for working for the party’s leadership during the monsoon session of Parliament amid the high-tension drama.

He further claimed that the Manipur episode, in which two Kuki community members were paraded in the open while being watched by an angry mob of between 800 and 1,000 men, had defamed India on a global scale. Despite the horrific episode, Sharma voiced his surprise at N Biren Singh, the chief minister of Manipur, who claimed that hundreds of similar incidents have occurred in the state.

After resigning he addressed to media and said that very heavy heart he has resigned. He also said, the Manipur situation has damaged India.

Sharma further informed PM Modi and BJP national president JP Nadda in a letter that such an incident had never occurred elsewhere. Still, the PM is dozing off, and he lacks the guts to remove CM Biren Singh, the speaker said.

He further said, he had been asked to argue for the Manipur event, which he categorically rejected. Then I understood that nobody (from the party) would pay attention. They are power-hungry and unconcerned for our girls and fellow citizens, he claimed.

In response to the latest incident, Janata Dal (United) slammed the BJP, claiming that even BJP leaders are feeling ashamed of their government. Sharma was further reported by the party as claiming that he felt stigmatised and self-conscious about working for the BJP leadership.

The last time Sharma made headlines was during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when he announced his resignation from the Congress due to Rahul Gandhi’s position on the Pulwama terror attack.

The JD(U), the party of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, chuckled at the situation.

According to Umesh Singh, head of the JD(U) state unit, the resignation of senior spokesman Vinod Sharma shows cracks appearing in the BJP’s rank and file as a result of the Narendra Modi government’s improper handling of the Manipur issue.

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The Delhi BJP today organised a protest outside the AAP office, calling for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to step down due to what they claim is the government’s failure on all fronts.

Speaking to the protesters, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva accused the Kejriwal administration of failing on all fronts, which was made clear by the city’s first flood in 45 years.

Since Delhi has been engulfed in corruption, inaction, and instability under his administration, Kejriwal no longer has the moral right to hold onto the position of chief minister. People will oust him in the 2025 assembly elections if he does not resign, according to a statement from Sachdeva.

Police blocked the protesters’ path to the AAP headquarters on DDU Marg after they had gathered close to ITO.

As they attempted to tear down the barricade to get access to the AAP office, the police deployed a water cannon to scatter them.

The police detained several protesters, including Sachdeva.

Following this, the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg was temporarily closed at ITO due to a protest by the Delhi BJP near the AAP’s office. Other areas of the capital’s traffic were also impacted.

However, this is not the first time when the BJP has staged a protest infront of the AAP office and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, earlier when Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested in a money laundering case then also BJP staged a protest, and demanded his resignation.

The arrest of two of Arvind Kejriwal’s ministers in connection with allegations of corruption prompted the BJP to call for his resignation. The party also slammed AAP’s public demonstrations against the arrest of Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, saying that the CBI is acting legally against the corrupt.

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Twitter India Public Policy head Mahima Kaul has resigned from her post citing personal reasons, a senior executive of the micro-blogging site Twitter confirmed on Saturday. Kaul said she has stepped down from her role in the firm to take some time off. Reuters reported about her resignation on Saturday citing two sources.

Twitter Global Policy head Monique Meche said at the start of this year Mahima Kaul decided to step down from her role as Twitter Public Policy Director for India and South Asia to take a well-deserved break. He said in a statement Kaul will continue in her role till the end of March and will support the transition. She had joined the micro-blogging platform in 2015.  

Kaul’s resignation comes at a controversial time for the microblogging website, which came under the radar of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for violating Indian laws with many of its users tweeting about farmers’ genocide.

On Wednesday, the Ministry had sent Twitter a sternly worded notice, threatening the company with penal consequences if over 250 accounts and posts that were flagged by the government weren’t blocked. Later, the Twitter blocked the handles of Caravan magazine, Kisan Ekta Morcha, Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan and several others. The firm, which blocked the accounts on Monday, restored them shortly stating that they constituted free speech and were newsworthy. The lifting of the ban came in the backdrop of widespread outrage against Twitter for censoring free speech.

There has been a clampdown on the farmers’ protest in the aftermath of the violence during the Republic Day tractor rally. Protest sites near Delhi have been heavily barricaded, with nails dug into the roads. The government has also cut the protestors’ access to internet. More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the violence and several are reportedly missing.

The clampdown came amid growing outrage on social media platforms over the clashes between Delhi Police and farmers on Republic Day. After the death of a farmer at the Central Delhi’s ITO, several journalists and activists had claimed that the protesting farmer was shot dead by the cop’s bullet. They also shared the information from their handles.

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Later, the cases were filed against journalist Rajdeep Sardesai and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, as well as several others, for posts and comments on this matter. Registering the FIRs, Delhi Police said they posted fake, misleading and wrong information regarding unfortunate death of the tractor driver to instigate violence.

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