National: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday inducted five new Cabinet ministers in the government. Aam Aadmi Party MLAs- Hardeep Singh Mundian, Barinder Kumar Goyal, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, Mahinder Bhagat and Ravjot Singh took oath as Cabinet ministers.

Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Katariya administered oath to all five MLAs during a swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhawan. This comes hours after Mann removed his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Onkar Singh from the post.  

These ministers resigned

Earlier on Sunday, four ministers resigned from the Punjab Cabinet. They were:

1. Brahm Shankar Jimpa (Minister for Water Supply, Sanitation, Revenue, and Disaster Management)
2. Chetan Singh Jodamajra (Minister for Information and Public Relations, Mining and Geology)
3. Anmol Gagan Mann (Minister for Tourism)
4. Balkar Singh (Minister for Local Bodies)

Who are the new ministers?

Hardeep Singh Mundian: Hardeep Singh Mundian represents the Sahnewal Assembly constituency. He won the assembly election on AAP's ticket in 2022. He defeated Congress' Vikram Bajwa, son-in-law of former Punjab CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.

Mohinder Bhagat: Bhagat is the AAP MLA  from Jalandhar West in the July polls. He won against the BJP candidate Sheetal Angural, who was previously the AAP MLA from the constituency until his defection. Bhagat secured a decisive victory by a margin of 37,325 votes.

Barinder Goyal: A lawyer by profession, Goyal contested the Assembly poll from the Lehragaga seat on a BJP ticket in 1992 but finished second as former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal won the elections. After he joined AAP in 2022, he contested from the the Lehragaga seat and defeated SAD (Samyukta) five-time MLA Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Bhattal.

Tarunpreet Singh Sondh: Sondh is the vice president of AAP's Punjab state unit. Sondh defeated SAD’s Jasdeep Kaur Yadu by a huge margin of over 35,000 votes in the 2022 polls in the Khanna seat. 

Ravjot Singh: A doctor by profession, Ravjot started his political journey with Aam Aadmi Party in 2014. He contested the 2017 assembly elections from the Sham Chaurasi (reserved) and got over 42,000 votes. However, he narrowly lost to Congress candidate Pawan Adia. Later in the 2019, Lok Sabha elections, he contested the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha reserved seat but was defeated by BJP candidate Som Prakash. In 2022, he won the assembly seat from Sham Chaurasi, defeating Pawan Adia by a margin of over 21,000 votes.

Fourth Cabinet shuffle in two-and-half years

Notably, this is the fourth cabinet expansion in Bhagwant Mann's 30-month-old government. The Punjab Assembly has 117 members, and until now, the cabinet consisted of 15 ministers, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The Council of Ministers can have a total of 18 members. Mann has been in Delhi for several days, and after receiving approval from party convener Arvind Kejriwal following the changes in Delhi, the cabinet expansion was finalised on Monday.