Ludhiana West MLA Sanjeev Arora inducted into Punjab Cabinet as industries and NRI affairs minister

The industries department was represented by Tarunpreet Singh Sond, and NRI affairs was headed by Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal.

AAP leader and industrialist, Arora, resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. He submitted his resignation to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who accepted it. Arora, a first-time MP, was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on April 10, 2022, and his tenure was to end on April 9, 2028.

With his induction into the Cabinet, Mann now has 17 ministers, including himself. As per rules, Mann can have 18 ministers, including himself, but he is likely to keep a berth vacant.

In the run-up to the by-election, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had announced that Arora would be made a minister after his victory.

Sources said the party wanted to fill all Cabinet berths, but with the by-election necessitated in Tarn Taran after the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal last week, the party decided to fill only one seat and leave another vacant.

“A Cabinet berth has been kept vacant so that the party can promise the electorates of Tarn Taran that if they elect the AAP candidate, their representative will be inducted into the Cabinet,” a party leader said.

Arora was sworn in as the Ludhiana West MLA on Friday, but his induction took place on Thursday as the governor was away in Udaipur for a couple of days. Kataria returned to Chandigarh on Wednesday.

Arora secured a decisive victory in the recently concluded by-election, defeating Congress’s heavyweight Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 10,637 votes, and helping the AAP to tighten its grip over the urban Ludhiana West Assembly constituency, where the bypoll was necessitated after the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Singh Gogi.

Arora secured 35,179 votes, increasing AAP’s vote share to 39.02%, an upswing of more than 4% over the party’s 2022 performance.

Before entering politics, Arora was a well-known businessman and philanthropist. He heads Ritesh Industries Ltd, a textile export firm, and Hampton Sky Realty Ltd. He also founded Femella Fashions, a women’s apparel brand, and Teneron Ltd, a manufacturing unit supplying non-ferrous alloys to firms like Suzuki.

In 2005, he established the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust in memory of his parents, both of whom succumbed to cancer. The trust has since supported hundreds of patients. Arora also contributed extensively to Covid-19 relief efforts and medical institutions like Dayanand Medical College.