The Governor of Punjab, Banwarilal Purohit, on Sunday administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 15 Cabinet Ministers including seven newly inducted ones. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, accompanied by Deputy Chief Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and O.P. Soni, was present on the occasion.
Channi added six new faces to his cabinet and dropped some from his predecessor’s team. The expansion, coming months ahead of the Assembly polls, has already sparked resentment among those dropped and also over the return of a scandal-tainted MLA dropped earlier.
The ministers taking oath of office today are: Brahm Mohindra, Manpreet Singh Badal, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhbindr Singh Sarkaria, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Aruna Chaudary, Razia Sultana, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Vijay Inder Singla, Randeep Singh Nabha, Raj Kumar Verka, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Pargat Singh, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Gukrirat Singh Kotli.
The induction of Kotli, grandson of former Chief Minister Beant Singh, was opposed by the Opposition parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Admi Party. He had faced trial in the 1994 case of abduction and molestation of a French tourist, but was acquitted in 1999.
Rana Gurjeet Singh, on the other hand, was part of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s team earlier but was dropped in January 2018 following a sand mining scandal involving him and his family. He is among the richest MLAs of Punjab.
The Cabinet expansion has drawn the ire of the ministers of the Amarinder Singh government, who have been dropped from the Channi government. Balbir Singh Sidhu and Gurpreet Singh Kangar held a joint news conference here shortly before the cabinet expansion and asked what was their fault that they had been dropped. Congress leader Manish Tewari waded into the controversy and said it is the chief minister’s prerogative to decide who should be a minister. But he said that former health minister Balbir Singh worked exemplarily during the worst days of Covid.
However, Congress leader in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat said the new Cabinet is a balanced one. “Those who could not be made ministers today will be accommodated in government setup and organisation. This exercise has been done to bring in young faces and strike a social and regional balance,” Rawat said.
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