AAP govt in Punjab: 10 cabinet ministers take oath as Team Mann takes guard - Hindustan Times
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AAP govt in Punjab: 10 cabinet ministers take oath as Team Mann takes guard

By, Chandigarh
Mar 22, 2022 11:22 AM IST

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann inducted 10 AAP MLAs as ministers in his cabinet, showing a preference for first-time legislators. Barring Harpal Singh Cheema and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, the other eight ministers have been elected to the assembly for the first time.

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday inducted 10 ministers, including a woman, in his cabinet, showing a preference for first-time legislators.

Punjab chief ministers Bhagwant Mann inducted 10 AAP MLAs as ministers in his cabinet, showing a preference for first-time legislators. All Mann cabinet ministers took oath at Punjab Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh on Saturday. (PTI)
Punjab chief ministers Bhagwant Mann inducted 10 AAP MLAs as ministers in his cabinet, showing a preference for first-time legislators. All Mann cabinet ministers took oath at Punjab Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh on Saturday. (PTI)

Barring Harpal Singh Cheema and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, the other eight ministers have been elected to the assembly for the first time. Both Cheema and Hayer were among the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members in the previous assembly also. Cheema, MLA from Dirba, was the leader of the opposition (LOP). Hayer, who is also the state youth wing president of the AAP, has got re-elected from Barnala.

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Dr Baljit Kaur (Malout), Harbhajan Singh (Jandiala), Dr Vijay Singla (Mansa), Lal Chand Kataruchak (Bhoa), Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal (Ajnala), Laljit Singh Bhullar (Patti), Brahm Shanker Jimpa (Hoshiarpur), and Harjot Singh Bains (Anandpur Sahib) are the first-time AAP legislators who have been inducted into the state cabinet.

Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 10 ministers, all in the cabinet rank – at the Guru Nanak Auditorium in Punjab Raj Bhawan here in the presence of Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Mann and other state leaders and legislators of the AAP. All the ministers took the oath in Punjabi. Besides Mann’s children Seerat and Dilshan, the family members of the ministers and MLAs were also present. Mann had named his team in a tweet on Friday evening, giving the names and photos of MLAs to be sworn-in as cabinet ministers.

First list: Seniors, giant slayers miss out

The line-up was full of surprises as most of the senior MLAs and giant slayers got left out. The names of senior party leaders Aman Arora, Saravjit Kaur Manuke, Baljinder Kaur, Budh Ram, and Kultar Singh Sandhwan were doing the rounds in party circles for cabinet berths. All five were re-elected from their seats for the second time. While the party has decided to nominate Sandhwan for the speaker’s post, others got left out. Similarly, first-time winners like Dr Charanjit Singh, Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Jeevan Jyot Kaur and Jagdeep Kamboj, who defeated bigwigs, also did not figure in the first list.

Dr Charanjit had defeated former CM and Charanjit Singh Channi of the Congress in Chamkaur Sahib whereas Khudian trounced five-time former CM Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi. Kamboj routed SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal in Jalalabad and Jeevan Jyot defeated Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu and former Akali minister Bikram Majithia in Amritsar East. Aman Arora, whose omission was a shocker for many, said there must have been some deficiency in his sincerity and effort. “I will try to do better in future. It is the CM’s prerogative to pick his team,” he said.

Seven slots vacant

Congratulating the new ministers, Baljinder Kaur said, “The high command has taken the decision and I respect it”. The e MLA said she has always stood by the party, even during its many ups and down and when big leaders left it during difficult time.

The constitutional cap allows 18 ministers, including the chief minister, which is 15% of the number of members of the assembly and still leave Mann with seven slots to fill. Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony was a low-key affair as compared to the grand event at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, in SBS Nagar district where Mann took the oath on Wednesday.

AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had attended the chief minister’s oath-taking ceremony along with his cabinet colleagues and Punjab affairs co-incharge Raghav Chadha. However, none of them was seen at Punjab Raj Bhawan. The AAP swept the polls, winning 92 of the 117 assembly seats, pushing the Congress to a distant runner-up position with only 18 seats.

Congress MLA and former minister Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that though the cabinet formation was the AAP’s internal matter, he felt that it should have inducted Aman Arora, Baljinder Kaur, Saravjit Kaur Manuke and Kultar Singh Sandhwan as ministers. “These are leaders who stood with the AAP during its good and bad times,” he posted on Twitter.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    A senior assistant editor, Navneet Sharma leads the Punjab bureau for Hindustan Times. He writes on politics, public affairs, civil services and the energy sector.

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