Punjab cabinet expansion today, Minister Nijjar quits; MLAs Gurmeet Khudian, Balkar Singh set to be inducted

The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab will expand its cabinet on Wednesday by inducting two party MLAs as ministers even as local bodies minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar tendered his resignation.

The two AAP MLAs to be inducted as cabinet ministers are Gurmeet Singh Khudian and Balkar Singh. Khudian is MLA from Lambi and was AAP’s giant slayer who defeated Akali patriarch and five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in the state polls last year. Balkar, a former police officer, is MLA from the Kartarpur reserved seat. It falls in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency won by the party in a bypoll on May 13. Both are first-time legislators.

Mann has forwarded Nijjar’s resignation to governor Banwari Lal Purohit for early acceptance. A spokesperson of the chief minister’s office said: “The CM has impressed upon the governor to accept the resignation of Nijjar, who has resigned on “personal grounds”. The names of Balkar Singh and Khudian have been proposed for inducting them as cabinet ministers, the spokesperson said.

The resignation of Nijjar, who is an MLA from Amritsar South, came after his statement backing Daily Ajit’s editor-in-chief Barjinder Singh Hamdard appeared in the newspaper. It is learnt that Nijjar’s statement has not gone down well with the Mann government.

Hamdard is under VB scanner over alleged misuse of funds for setting up the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial.

Nijjar had found a place in the cabinet in the first expansion in July last year. Earlier, he was elected as the protem speaker of the assembly after the AAP formed the government. He is also the president of Chief Khalsa Diwan, a 118-year-old Sikh organisation that runs more than 50 educational institutes and various human welfare institutions. Before Nijjar’s resignation, Punjab cabinet had 15 ministers, including the chief minister. Mann, who took over as the chief minister on March 16 last year, first expanded the cabinet by inducting five MLAs as ministers in July 2022, and then one more was inducted in January this year. The constitutional cap allows 18 ministers, including the chief minister, which is 15% of the number of members of the state assembly.

AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and several of his ministers are expected to come to Chandigarh on Wednesday to attend a dinner to be hosted by chief minister Bhagwant Mann at his residence for party leaders, including MPs and MLAs. “The Delhi chief minister will not be present at the oath-taking ceremony of the new ministers,” a senior party leader said.

With inputs from HTC Amritsar