Politics: Day of cabinet expansions in Punjab, Himachal

Saturday turned out to be a day of Cabinet expansions in Punjab and neighbouring Himachal Pradesh. While Punjab witnessed the resignation of one of Ministers from the Council of Ministers, the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu inducted seven ministers in his council of ministers.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann after accepting resignation of Fauja Singh Sarari inducted Dr Balbir Singh as a new member of his Council of Ministers.

For  Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu  it was his first expansion of  Cabinet.

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath of secrecy to the newly inducted ministers at a ceremony at the Raj Bhawan.

Those inducted include three-time MLA from Solan (SC) assembly constituency Dhani Ram Shandil, Chander Kumar from Kangra, Harshwardhan Chauhan from Sirmaur, Jagat Singh Negi from Kinnaur, and Vikramaditya Singh, Anirudh Singh and Rohit Thakur from Shimla.

Shimla, as expected, bagged three ministerial berths. Chander Kumar has been  the only MLA from Kangra  to be made minister. Congress won seven out of eight seats in Shimla , and in Kangra it had won 10 out of 15.

Chief Minister Sukhvider Singh Sukhu also administered oath of office and secrecy to six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries  – Sunder Singh Thakur, Mohan Lal Brakta, Ram Kumar Chaudhary, Ashish Butail, Kishori Lal,  and Sanjay Awasthi.

Prabhjot Singh