The first and much-awaited cabinet expansion of the three-month-old AAP government in Punjab was carried out on Monday with the induction of five news ministers, raising questions over the performance of the Bhagwant Mann government by the opposition.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that all the 92 MLAs cannot be given berths, and those who cannot be given a place in the cabinet will be given other responsibilities.
The five new ministers are – Anmol Gagan Mann, the legislator from Kharar, Aman Arora, MLA from Sunam, Inderbir Singh Nijjar, Amritsar South MLA, Fauja Singh Sarari, MLA from Guruharsahai, and Chetan Singh Jouramajra, Samana seat legislator.
CM Mann had gone to Delhi a few days ago to finalize the extension after consultations with AAP Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In selecting new people to the Mann cabinet, the AAP took into account caste, gender, religion and regional considerations. Given the political importance of the region, out of the five new cabinet ministers, four are from Malwa region, while one is from Majha. Retired policeman Sarri Rai belongs to the Sikh community.
MLA from Kharar, Anmol Gagan Mann, has been made a cabinet minister by giving fresh blood as well as giving more representation to the woman. She is the second woman in the cabinet led by Mann.
Before Kultar Singh Sandhwan was elected the Speaker of the Assembly, Dr Nijjar, the President of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, was initially made the Pro-tem Speaker.
Aman Arora is a second term MLA and won the assembly election by the highest margin of 75,000 votes. His entry into the cabinet was considered a foregone conclusion when the AAP government was elected, but then his exclusion raised eyebrows.
Jauramajra comes from the politically important Patiala district.
With the expansion, five of the eight vacant posts of the Council of Ministers have been filled. One of the vacancies occurred after the removal of Health Minister Dr Vijay Singla on corruption charges.
However, the government’s decision not to choose former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh – who had initially probed the sacrilege cases in the state – raised eyebrows for the cabinet expansion. He was ignored even when he was inducted into the cabinet for the first time.
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