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Punjab cabinet expansion: 7 fresh faces, 8 old ministers likely to take oath today
Five ministers of the previous Capt Amarinder-led government won’t make it to the Channi-led cabinet, sources said; oath ceremony at 4.30pm on Sunday
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi is all set to expand his cabinet with swearing-in scheduled for 4:30pm at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh on Sunday to fill all the 15 berths in his council of ministers. However, there was still confusion over the final list as Channi reportedly had a midnight video conference with Rahul Gandhi after some senior MLAs, who got to know that they didn’t make it to the cabinet, conveyed their strong displeasure to the party high command.
There can be 18 ministers in the Punjab cabinet, including the chief minister and his two deputies Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and OP Soni who have already been sworn-in.
After getting the names cleared for inclusion in the cabinet from the Congress high command, Channi, who returned from the national capital on Saturday morning, met Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit in the afternoon and took time for the swearing-in ceremony.
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Even as the chief minister has kept the names of his ministers a secret, information gathered from multiple sources in the state Congress reveals that seven fresh faces are likely to be inducted on Sunday.
Kuljit Singh Nagra, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Pargat Singh, Raj Kumar Verka, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurpreet Kotli and Rana Gurjit Singh are the new faces likely to get the cabinet berth.
While Verka is a Valmiki community leader, Gilzian repersents the other backward classes (OBCs) whereas the rest five are Jat Sikhs.
The Congress high command has said to have given the nod to drop five ministers from the previous Amarinder Singh cabinet: Balbir Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sundar Sham Arora. However, eight ministers from the previous cabinet — Brahm Mohindra, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Manpreet Singh Badal, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Aruna Chaudhary, Razia Sultana, Vijay Inder Singla and Bharat Bhushan Ashu — are being retained, it is learnt.
