M A I N   N E W S

Badal to begin fifth innings as CM today
10 new faces in the list of 18 ministers
Naveen S Garewal/TNS

Chandigarh, March 13
The top leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance is working overtime to define the shape of the Punjab Cabinet that will come into being tomorrow. After days of hectic parleys, the names of Cabinet ministers have finally been decided.

The portfolios will be announced after the swearing-in ceremony of the entire Cabinet at Chappar Chiri at 11 am tomorrow.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal has already held several meetings with party leaders, including those from the BJP, and consulted his father and chief ministerial candidate Parkash Singh Badal to zero in on the core team that will run Punjab for the next five years.

Besides Badal senior being sworn in as Chief Minister for a record fifth time, Sukhbir will be deputy chief minister. He is likely to retain the home department.

Five former ministers have been retained from the SAD and one from the BJP. As seven former ministers had lost the elections, this has made the task of inducting some new faces into the Cabinet easier for the SAD-BJP leadership.

Besides the Badal father-son duo, the five old faces in the SAD list are Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Ajit Singh Kohar, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Janmeja Singh Sekhon. The only old face in the BJP list is Surjit Kumar Jyani.

It is learnt that legislators to be inducted in the SAD list of ministers other than those in the previous Cabinet are Bibi Jagir Kaur, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Swarn Singh Phillaur, Jathedar Tota Singh, Sikander Singh Maluka and Bikram Majithia.

The new faces in the BJP list are Anil Joshi, Madan Mohan Mittal and Chuni Lal Bhagat.

The Cabinet will represent all the regions of Punjab as well as communities. Majha has got four ministers that include Adesh Partap, Majithia, Joshi and Ranike. Ranike also represents the reserved category and backward classes.

Doaba too will have four ministers. These are Jagir Kaur, Kohar, Phillaur and Chuni Lal Bhagat. Phillaur represents the backward classes.

The remaining 10 ministers are from the Malwa region and incidentally all these ministers are from the general category. The distribution of ministries is proportional to the total number of seats in the three regions of the state.

Rakhra is a two-time MLA and a “giant killer”. He defeated Raninder Singh in Samana. Besides, the SAD has no other leader in the Patiala area of the stature of Rakhra. He will help the SAD consolidate its party position in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Bikram Majithia has earned his position in the Cabinet by leading the youth wing of the party to success. Out of 14 youth-wing candidates in these polls, 11 have won.