Charanjit Channi to be first Chief Minister of Punjab from ‘puad’ region

Tribune News Service

Ropar, September 19

With the elevation of Chamkaur Sahib MLA Charanjit Singh Channi the ‘puad’ area has got the top post on state Cabinet for the first time.

The ‘puad’ is considered to be area between Ghaggar and Sutlej rivers including Mohali, Ropar and Samrala.

Though Giani Zail Singh after winning from Anandpur Sahib-Ropar assembly constituency also sworn in as chief minister in 1972, but he originally belonged to Faridkot district.

Anandpur Sahib MLA and Punjab Speaker Rana KP Singh and senior BJP minister and former Cabinet minister Madan Mohan Mittal have welcomed the elevation of Channi as chief minister.

Rana said Channi was like his younger brother and he was feeling proud that a local from the area became Punjab chief minister. Mittal said with Channi reaching to the post of chief minister the residents of region were expecting the fast pace of development in ‘puad’.

Manmohan Singh, the elder brother of Channi, said they have a joint family of four brothers staying at Kharar. After completing his schooling at Kharar, he got admission in Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College in Chandigarh where he was elected as general secretary of student union.

Later, in Panjab University along with studies and student politics he participated in national level competitions in handball.

Channi’s first tryst with state politics started 29 years ago in 1992 when he got elected as municipal councillor at Kharar and later became chief of the civic body before entering in the fray as independent candidate in 2007 assembly elections from Chamkaur Sahib and defeating SAD stalwart Satwant Kaur Sandhu.

In 2012, contesting as Congress nominee Channi defeated Sandhu’s daughter-in-law Jagmeet Kaur. In 2017, when he was CLP he scored a hat-trick by defeating AAP nominee Dr Charanjit Singh in assembly elections following which he was inducted as Cabinet minister in Congress the government led by Capt Amarinder Singh.