Badal to take oath heading an 18-member cabinet in Punjab

Parkash Singh Badal will take oath as Chief Minister of Punjab tomorrow for a record fifth time at the head of an 18-member cabinet, including his son Sukhbir who will continue as his deputy for the second successive term of the SAD-BJP alliance ministry.

The state, with a 117-member assembly, can have under the Constitution, an 18-member cabinet, including the Chief Minister.

85-year-old Badal senior had headed two full five-year terms from 1997 and 2007. His other terms were in 1977-1980 and 1970-71.

Only one woman Bibi Jagir Kaur, former President of SGPC, has been included in the ministry though eight women of the alliance (SAD-six, BJP-two) were elected to the assembly.

All the seventeen ministers to be sworn in with Parkash Singh Badal  will be of cabinet rank, including Sukhbir who has been named Deputy Chief Minister, an official announcement said here this evening.

Fourteen of them belong to Shiromani Akali Dal and the remaining four to its alliance partner BJP.

The Badal family has four members in the cabinet. Besides the father and the son duo, others are Adesh Partap Singh Kairon (son-in-law of Badal senior) and Bikram Singh Majithia (brother-in-law of Sukhbir).