CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann today dropped NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from his cabinet causing a great embarrassment to Dhaliwal who faced similar humiliation second time in the last three years of AAP government.
Mann has inducted newly election Ludhiana West MLA Sanjeev Arora in his cabinet and gave him department of NRI affairs earlier held by Dhaliwal. Arora has also been given the charge of Industries department.
Dhaliwal was last year stripped of his portfolio of Panchayats and rural development and given a non-existing department. Ultimately Dhaliwal was given NRI affairs department. He was popular minister and considered a honest man. He held series of online meetings with NRIs to remove their grievances.
After his removal from the cabinet Dhaliwal said that he had come to serve the people of Punjab and he will continue to do so even without any cabinet rank. He said that he was dedicated to people of his constituency Ajnala and its development is his priority. He said that he would remain loyal to his party.
Dhaliwal said that he had resigned when CM asked him that he wants to give chance to somebody other. He said that he handed over his resignation immediately. He said that he was close to Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann even before formation of Punjab government. He said that only CM can tell the reason for his removal from cabinet.
After this reshuffle, there are now 16 ministers, including the chief minister, in the Cabinet, which can have 18 members.
Arora’s induction was the seventh expansion of the Mann Cabinet in just over three years. The last one took place in September last year when five -- Hardeep Singh Mundian, Barinder Kumar Goyal, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, Ravjot Singh and Mohinder Bhagat -- were inducted after dropping four ministers.
Then the dropped ministers were Balkaur Singh, Anmol Gagan Mann, Chetan Singh Jauramajra and Brahm Shankar Jhimpa and now Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal.
Businessman-turned-politician Arora, who was a Rajya Sabha member for three years, won the Ludhiana (West) bypoll on June 23 by defeating his nearest rival by 10, 637 votes.
Sources said earlier the party was keen to fill all Cabinet berths, but with the by-election necessitated in Taran Tarn after the death of AAP lawmaker Kashmir Singh Sohal last week, the party decided to leave one Cabinet berth vacant so that the party can promise the electorates that if they elect the AAP candidate, their representative will be inducted into the Council of Ministers.