Punjab Cabinet expansion on Saturday

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will expand his Cabinet on Saturday. The decision was taken during a meeting between the Chief Minister and Congress president Rahul Gandhi here on Friday.

The Congress president has approved the following names for ministerial berths: Sukhjinder Randhawa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Vijay Inder Singla, Sunder Shyam Arora, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Gurpreet Kangar, Balbir Sidhu and OP Soni.

Ministers of State Razia Sultana and Aruna Chaudhary are likely to be elevated to the rank of Cabinet Minister. Nine new Cabinet ministers will take oath tomorrow.

Capt Amarinder congratulated them and announced that swearing-in ceremony will take place tomorrow at 6 pm at the Punjab Raj Bhavan.

“Happy to announce the names of the new Cabinet Ministers ... Congratulation to all!,” he said.

Capt Amarinder held a second round of discussion with Rahul Gandhi today before announcing the names. According to sources, their meeting today lasted around an hour. They held a similar meeting on Thursday, where Amarinder was asked by Rahul Gandhi to provide the seniority list of the MLAs. The expansion has been pending for a long time and many senior MLAs were eyeing a ministerial berth.

At present there are nine ministers, including Amarinder Singh. With the nine new ministers, the Punjab Government will touch the maximum strength of 15 per cent of the state Assembly.

Meanwhile, three time MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian from Urmur has resigned from the party post. He was hopeful of a ministerial berth in the Cabinet.