Punjab Cabinet announced: CM keeps 14 portfolios; two deputies get health and home each

Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi has retained 14 portfolios, including power, justice and excise, as ministries were allocated on Tuesday. While Channi’s first deputy, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, has been given home affairs, cooperation and jails, his other deputy, OM Parkash Soni, has been allocated with the health and family welfare, defence services welfare and freedom fighters.

Portfolios allotted to Punjab ministers; CM Charanjit Channi keeps Vigilance, Justice, Civil Aviation departments; Dy CM Sukhjinder S Randhawa gets Home Affairs, Cooperation and Jails; Dy CM OP Soni to see Health and Family Welfare, Defence Services Welfare and Freedom Fighters pic.twitter.com/PjiKYRMKNG

— ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2021

The Punjab chief minister had carried out his first cabinet expansion on Sunday , inducting 15 Cabinet ministers, which included seven new entrants. The new faces in the Channi ministry are Randeep Singh Nabha, Raj Kumar Verka, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Pargat Singh, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Gurkirat Singh Kotli. Brahm Mohindra, Manpreet Singh Badal, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Aruna Chaudhary, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Razia Sultana, Vijay Inder Singla and Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who were ministers in the previous Amarinder Singh led cabinet, were retained as Cabinet Ministers. Channi was handpicked as Punjab’s first Dalit chief minister following the unceremonious exit of Congress veteran Amarinder Singh after a prolonged power tussle with state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. With inputs from agencies