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Assembly Election Results Updates: Days after AAP leader Bhagwant Mann took oath as the new Chief Minister of Punjab, all eyes are on his new Cabinet which will be formed on Saturday. Ten ministers, including a woman, will be inducted in the state government in Punjab on Saturday. Among the 10 ministers, eight are first-time MLAs.
The swearing-in ceremony of the Mann’s cabinet will be held at Punjab Raj Bhawan at 11 am, officials said. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also decided to nominate Kultar Singh Sandhwan as Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. After their oath-taking, the newly inducted ministers will assume charge in the Punjab Civil Secretariat and the first cabinet meeting of the AAP government will be held in the afternoon, sources said.
In a tweet on Friday evening, Bhagwant Mann put out a picture giving names of the 10 party MLAs who will be sworn-in as ministers and congratulated them. There are 18 berths in the cabinet, including the chief minister. Of the ten, five MLAs represent Malwa region, four Majha and one legislator is from Doaba.
Four MLAs who will be sworn-in as ministers represent reserve constituencies–Dirba, Jandiala, Malout and Bhoa. The ministers to be inducted include Harpal Singh Cheema, second-time legislator from Dirba and the party’s Dalit face. He was also the Leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly.
Two-time Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer will also find a berth in the Mann-led cabinet. Other MLAs to be inducted in the cabinet are Dr Baljit Kaur, Harbhajan Singh from Jandiala, Dr Vijay Singla from Mansa, Lal Chand from Bhoa, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Ajnala, Laljit Singh Bhullar from Patti, Brahm Shanker from Hoshiarpur and Harjot Bains from Anandpur Sahib. Cheema, an advocate by profession, had defeated Shiromani Akali Dal’s Gulzar Singh Moonak by a margin of 50,655 votes.
Meawnhile, the BJP on Friday named Agnimitra Paul as its candidate for Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll and Baby Kumari for Bochahan assembly bypoll from Bihar, in a snub to its ally Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) whose MLA’s death necessitated the election. Paul will fight against Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate and former BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha.
Asansol is going to the polls as its BJP MP Babul Supriyo had quit the party and also as an MP and joined the TMC. The BJP’s decision to fight the Bochahan bypoll is significant. VIP chief Mukesh Sahni has been targeting the BJP and also put up its candidates against the BJP in many seats in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections despite being part of the government in Bihar.
The BJP also named its Rajya Sabha candidates from one seat each in Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura. They are Pabitra Margherita, Sikandra Kumar, S Phangnon Konyak and Manik Saha, respectively.
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