Capt loyalists to be kept out of new cabinet

CHANDIGARH: Newly appointed Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi is likely to induct at least seven new faces in his cabinet and drop five MLAs, who were a part of the Amarinder Singh-led government, Congress functionaries familiar with the matter said Saturday.

The new Punjab cabinet was finalised after three rounds of discussions with the Congress leadership, the functionaries said.

With under five months to go for the state elections, Captain Amarinder Singh resigned as chief minister last Saturday after the Congress summoned a meeting of its lawmakers in the state, saying that he felt “humiliated”.

Channi, who was elected for the top post a day later, met governor Banwarilal Purohit at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday, seeking time for cabinet expansion to fill 15 berths on his council of ministers.

“The oath-taking ceremony for the new ministers will take place at 4.30pm on Sunday,” Channi said after the meeting.

His meeting with the governor came barely hours after he returned from Delhi after a final round of discussions with the party high command on the cabinet formation.

According to party functionaries, Channi called the MLAs likely to be part of the cabinet expansion personally to inform of the development.

Kuljit Singh Nagra, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Pargat Singh, Raj Kumar Verka, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurpreet Kotli and Rana Gurjit Singh are likely to be inducted in the new cabinet, the functionaries said.

While Verka hails from the Valmiki community, Gilzian represents the other backward classes (OBCs). The five other MLAs are Jat Sikhs.

According to experts, after Amarinder’s resignation, the Congress is trying to balance caste equations in the pollbound state.

While Channi, a Dalit leader, was elected as the Congress Legislature Party leader, the party picked Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a Jat Sikh, and OP Soni, a Hindu, to be his deputies.

A consensus on the names for the cabinet expansion was reached during his meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other senior party members in Delhi, the functionaries said.

Channi was summoned to Delhi by the Congress high command on Friday to discuss the cabinet formation. The visit came within hours of him returning from the national capital. The party leadership has reportedly given its approval for dropping five ministers from the previous Amarinder Singh cabinet. These include Balbir Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sundar Shyam Arora. The Punjab cabinet can have 18 MLAs, including the CM and his two deputies.