Mann’s cabinet has 5 ministers from Malwa

The 48-year-old chief minister, Bhagwant Mann, has packed his cabinet with legislators who have been elected to the state assembly for the first-time even though most of them have been active in politics and unsuccessfully contested the assembly or Lok Sabha elections earlier

Chandigarh : When chief minister Bhagwant Mann and governor Banwarilal Purohit stood for a group photo with the newly inducted cabinet ministers at the Punjab Raj Bhawan on Saturday after their swearing-in, they were mostly flanked by fresh faces.

Of the 10 ministers in Mann cabinet, five are from the Malwa region, the biggest of the three regions with 69 of the 117 assembly seats – from where the AAP got bulk of its seats with a strike rate of 95%. The party made a near clean sweep in the region winning 66 seats.

The 48-year-old chief minister has packed his cabinet with legislators who have been elected to the state assembly for the first-time even though most of them have been active in politics and unsuccessfully contested the assembly or Lok Sabha elections earlier. Of the debutant MLAs, two, Dr Baljit Kaur and Dr Vijay Singla, are doctors. Both contested their first election this time.

Another two, Harjot Singh Bains and Harbhajan Singh, have studied law and one, Bram Shanker Jimpa is an industrialist with considerable experience as a municipal councillor.

Among the first-timer legislators also, those like retired IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap, former state convener Dr Balbir Singh and giant killers Jeevan Jyot and Dr Charanjit Singh, whose names were doing the rounds in party circles as the likely choices for cabinet berths, have not found a place. “The list of ministers did come as a surprise some of us but there are still seven slots left to be filled,” a party leader said.

Regional balance

Of the 10 ministers, five are from the Malwa region, the biggest of the three regions with 69 of the 117 assembly seats – from where the AAP got bulk of its seats with a strike rate of 95%. The party made a near clean sweep in the region winning 66 seats.

Harpal Singh Cheema (Dirba), Dr Baljit Kaur (Malout), Dr Vijay Singla (Mansa), Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer (Barnala), and Harjot Singh Bains (Anandpur Sahib) are from Malwa.

If the chief minister, who represents Dhuri is included, six of the 11 members of the cabinet come from this region.

Majha, where the AAP won 16 of the 25 seats, comes next with four cabinet ministers – Harbhajan Singh (Jandiala), Lal Chand Kataruchak (Bhoa), Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal (Ajnala) and Laljit Singh Bhullar (Patti). One minister, Bram Shanker Jimpa (Hoshiarpur), has been inducted from Doaba region where the party won 10 of the 23 seats.

4 SCs, 1 woman minister

The cabinet has four ministers who represent reserved constituencies of Dirba, Malout, Jandiala and Bhoa – two each from Malwa and Majha. Cheema, who represents Dirba, is the senior-most minister and was the first to take oath. He was the leader of opposition in the previous assembly.

Punjab has 32% SC population – the highest proportion of population in the country. Of the 10 ministers, four are Jat Sikhs and two belong to Hindu community. Mann has included only one woman MLA Dr Baljit Kaur in his cabinet even though 11 of the 13 newly elected women legislators are from the AAP.

No minister from 14 districts

The state cabinet has two members each from Sangrur and Amritsar, and one each from Barnala, Mansa, Muktsar, Rupnagar, Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran and Pathankot. However, 14 districts have gone unrepresented. They are Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur, SBS Nagar, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Moga, Fazilka, Faridkot, Bathinda, Malerkotla and Patiala.