Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers in the Raj Bhawan.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann chairs the first meeting of the Punjab Cabinet on Saturday. Twitter/@AamAadmiParty
Ten AAP MLAs, including a woman, were inducted in the Bhagwant Mann-led cabinet in Punjab on Saturday. Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 10 ministers at Punjab Bhawan. All of them took the oath in Punjabi.
The new members of the cabinet are, Harpal Singh Cheema, Dr Baljit Kaur, Harbhajan Singh ETO, Dr Vijay Singla, Lal Chand Kataruchak, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Laljit Singh Bhullar, Bram Shanker (Jimpa), Harjot Singh Bains.
Barring Harpal Singh Cheema and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, eight others are first-time MLAs.
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Let’s take a quick look at the new MLAs.
Harpal Singh Cheema
Cheema is a two-time legislator from Dirba and the party’s Dalit face. He had been the leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly and was known to raise public issues. He is also considered close to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
An advocate by profession, Cheema defeated Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Gulzar Singh Moonak from the Dirba Assembly seat.
Baljit Kaur
The 46-year-old lone woman to be inducted in the cabinet, Kaur won from Malout. An eye surgeon, Kaur, a first-time MLA, is the daughter of Sadhu Singh, who remained an AAP MP from Faridkot from 2014 to 2019. She joined AAP after resigning from her government job at the Muktsar civil hospital. During election meetings, she had even examined eye patients.
Kaur defeated SAD nominee Harpreet Singh by 40,261 votes from Malout in the Muktsar district.
Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh, 53, won from Jandiala after defeating Punjab Congress working president Sukhwinder Singh Danny.
Earlier, he had unsuccessfully contested from the seat in 2017. Singh was an excise and taxation officer in the Punjab government before he took voluntary retirement.
Vijay Singla
Dr Vijay Singla, 52, won from Mansa, where he defeated popular Punjabi singer and Congress candidate Shubhdeep Singh, also called Sidhu Moosewala, by a huge margin of 63,323 votes. Singla, also a first-time MLA, is a dentist and did a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from Punjabi University, Patiala. Interestingly, the singer had once been the dentist’s patient.
Lal Chand Kataruchak
Lal Chand Kataruchakk, 52, was president of the party’s SC wing, won from Bhoa seat in Pathankot. He trounced Congress candidate Joginder Pal. He has been a social worker all his life and for years, he has been fighting against illegal mining.
Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer
Two-time Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, 32, is the president of the AAP’s youth wing. He defeated SAD nominee Kulwant Singh Keetu. A mechanical engineer by profession, he became one of the youngest MLAs in Punjab Assembly at the age of 27 in 2017.
Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal
Sixty-year-old Dhaliwal is a farmer by profession. He spent some time in the US before coming back to India in 2014. He contested Assembly election for the first time from Ajnala and won. He defeated SAD candidate Amarpal Singh.
Laljit Singh Bhullar
Laljit Singh Bhullar, 41, was elected from the Patti seat. He defeated political stalwart Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, who is the son-in-law of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. He is an agriculturist by profession.
Bram Shanker Jimpa
Bram Shanker Jimpa, 57, has been elected from the Hoshiarpur seat. He defeated former minister and Congress nominee Sunder Sham Arora. He was vice-chairman of the Punjab Industry Development Board.
Harjot Singh Bains
Thirty-one-year-old Bains in the youngest cabinet minister, a lawyer by profession, he has been a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab. He is highly educated, having completed his education at the London School of Economics.
Bains has been elected from the Anandpur Sahib constituency. He defeated former speaker and Congress candidate Rana K P Singh. Bains, a lawyer by profession, had unsuccessfully contested from Sahnewal in 2017. Bains is a former president of the party’s youth wing.
After their oath-taking, the newly inducted ministers assumed charge in the Punjab Civil Secretariat and attended their first cabinet meeting.
With input from agencies
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