The Punjab State government on Wednesday expanded its Cabinet, inducting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs Gurmeet Singh Khudian and Balkar Singh as ministers. Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was also present. The induction follows close on the heels of AAP leader Inderbir Singh Nijjar’s resignation on Tuesday.
Khudian, 60, is a legislator from the Lambi seat in Muktsar. Known as the party’s “giant slayer,” defeated five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal from his home turf by a margin of 11,396 votes in the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls. Khudian joined the AAP after leaving the state Congress party in 2021. Meanwhile, Balkar Singh, 60, is an MLA from Kartarpur, a reserved seat in Jalandhar. Singh, a former police officer, joined the AAP in 2021 after retiring from the Punjab Police. Both Kudian and Singh are first time MLAs.
The Kartarpur Assembly seat falls under the Jalandhar constituency where AAP candidate Sushil Rinku registered victory in the bypoll this month. Rinku secured the maximum lead from the Kartarpur assembly segment out of a total of nine Assembly segments in Jalandhar.
It is the third cabinet expansion of the 14-month old AAP government in Punjab. In July 2022, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s government carried out its first cabinet expansion, inducting five party legislators. In January this year, senior AAP leader and Patiala Rural MLA, Dr Balbir Singh was sworn-in as cabinet minister, after Fauja Singh Sarari tendered his resignation.
With Wednesday’s induction- and Inderbir Singh Nijjar’s resignation- the Mann-led cabinet now comprises 16 members, including the Chief Minister. There are a total of 18 berths in the cabinet.
Inderbir Singh Nijjar tendered his resignation from the Council of Ministers on Tuesday , citing personal reasons.
Nijjar’s resignation came after his reported statement seeking to back Barjinder Singh Hamdard, the editor-in-chief of Punjabi newspaper Ajit. Hamdard is under the Vigilance Bureau’s scanner over the alleged misuse of funds in the execution of the Rs 315 crore Jang-E-Azadi memorial in Jalandhar.
