Captain Amarinder Singh sworn-in as Punjab CM, Navjot Singh Sidhu becomes cabinet minister

Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh was on Thursday sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Punjab in Chandigarh. Navjot Singh Sidhu was also sworn-in as a cabinet minister of Punjab. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were also present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Swearing in ceremony of Captain Amarinder Singh begins, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi & former PM Manmohan Singh also present pic.twitter.com/uDmrzDk6C7

— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2017

#FLASH Congress' Captain Amarinder Singh sworn in as CM of Punjab pic.twitter.com/Gi9tnyZEsu

— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2017

#FLASH Navjot Singh Sidhu sworn in as a cabinet minister of Punjab govt pic.twitter.com/TMYNhR5cH0

— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Amarinder after he was sworn-in as the chief minister.

Congratulations @capt_amarinder on taking oath as CM. Wishing you the very best in working for Punjab’s development.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 16, 2017

Amarinder, who led the Congress to victory in Punjab after a gap of 10 years, took oath as the state’s 26th chief minister in the ceremony. On 11 March, Congress had a landslide victory in the Punjab polls as it won 77 seats in the 117-seat Assembly. AAP and the SAD-BJP alliance were reduced to merely 20 and 18 seats respectively. The election which had turned into a triangular contest at the beginning of campaigning with the entry of the AAP in the state Assembly election saw the Congress emerging as the largest party receiving a 38.5 percent vote share and winning nearly two-third seats. Several of its key candidates including Sidhu, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Rana Gurjit Singh, Barindermeet Singh Pahra, Pargat Singh Powar, Dr Raj Kumar, Parminder Singh Pinki, Aman Arora, Aruna Chaudhary, Avtar Singh Junior, Hardial Singh Kamboj as well as Amarinder secured over 25,000 votes. Although Amarinder couldn’t defeat SAD’s Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi, he defeated Gurbachan Singh Babehali of SAD by over 52,407 votes from his Patiala seat. The second highest vote seeker from Congress was Sidhu who won the Amritsar (East) seat by a margin of 42,809 votes. The state Assembly election also saw a neck-and-neck fight in 12 seats with a vote margin of less than 2,000. In fact, Congress’s Fazilka candidate Davinder Singh Ghubaya beat Surjit Kumar Jyani of Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of just 265 votes.