Chandigarh: Expanding his council of ministers, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann inducted five legislators including a woman, as the new ministers in his Cabinet, here on Monday.
They are - the two-time legislator Aman Arora, 47, from Sunam seat, Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar, 66, from Amritsar (south), Fauja Singh Sarari, 61, Guru Har Sahai seat, Chetan Singh Jauramajra, 55, Samana, and Anmol Gagan Mann, 32, MLA from Kharar. The last named is the second woman to become the Cabinet minister in the Mann-led cabinet.
Barring Arora, the four others are the first-time legislators and of the five new faces, four MLAs are from the Malwa region and one – Nijjar - is from the Majha region.
The expansion is said to have been done keeping the balance of caste, gender, religion and regional considerations. While Arora, a second-term MLA who had won the assembly election with the highest margin of about 75,000 votes, and was not inducted in first go when 10 ministers were inducted, Jauramajra has been taken to give representation to Patiala district.
Likewise, while Anmol Maan is a youth leader and a Punjabi singer, who had also sung an election song, Nijjar is a radiologist by profession and was elected president of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, a 118-year-old Sikh organisation that runs educational institutes, health centres and various welfare projects, Sarari, a former cop, belongs to the Rai Sikh community.
It is the first Cabinet expansion of the Mann-led government after AAP stormed to power in the state in March, this year.
Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the MLAs at Punjab Raj Bhawan here.
Interacting with the newspersons, CM Bhagwant Mann said the portfolios to the new ministers would be allotted in a day or two.
With the induction of five more ministers, the strength of the Mann-led cabinet has reached 15, including the chief minister. There are 18 berths in his Cabinet, and he can thus have three more ministers.
The AAP formed the government following its landslide win in the assembly polls and inducted 10 MLAs, including eight first-timers, as ministers about three months ago. However in May, health minister Vijay Singla was sacked from the state Cabinet over graft charges, taking the strength of ministers to nine in the Cabinet.
The Aam Aadmi Party had stormed to power in Punjab by bagging 92 seats out of a total of 117 while Congress won 18, Shiromani Akali Dal, 3, BJP, two and BSP (an SAD ally), one while there was one independent MLA.
