Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi to visit Delhi to discuss cabinet expansion

Newly appointed Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will visit Delhi to hold discussions on the state cabinet expansion with Congress central leadership on Tuesday. Deputy Chief Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and OP Soni will also accompany Channi in the high-level meeting in the national capital. According to the sources, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Punjab Harish Rawat and party general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal will be present in the meeting where the names of the probable to be included in Channi’s cabinet will be discussed.

The new batch of ministers is to be appointed considering the social engineering and caste combinations as the state will go for assembly polls in few months. Although Congress top leadership is not in Delhi, a leader involved in the deliberations said that a Draft List will be finalised in the meeting after the green signal of top leadership. Cabinet expansion will be done in two-three days as not much time is left to fulfill the promises and announcements made by the government. Channi was sworn in as Chief Minister of Punjab on Monday. The three-time MLA from Rupnagar’s Chamkaur Sahib is the state’s first Dalit Chief Minister. On Sunday, after several rounds of parleys, Channi was selected for the post by the party high command, following Captain Amarinder Singh’s resignation. Amarinder Singh on Saturday submitted his resignation to state Governor Banwarilal Purohit, following months of infighting between him and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. These development came months before the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections.