The playing 11: CM Bhagwant Mann’s cabinet ministers

Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, 32
Barnala

In 2017, Meet Hayer became the youngest to win Assembly election and enter the Punjab Vidhan Sabha at the age of 27. At that time, he had defeated Congress’s Kewal Dhillon by a thin margin of 2,432 votes. In 2022, at the age of 32, he bettered his margin by leaps and bounds to 37,622 votes defeating nearest rival SAD’s Kulwant Singh Keetu. Over five years, his assets registered an increase of Rs 1 lakh.

Hayer, an engineer by profession, remained active during the farmers’ agitation against the now repealed agri laws in Barnala, which was an epicenter of the Kisan movement. Amid allegations that he was not much active in his constituency during his first term, Meet Hayer seems to have sailed on the badlaav wave. Along with AAP MLAs from Bhadaur and Mehal Kalan, Meet Hayer had started an agitation to stop installation of toll plaza on Barnala-Sirsa-Jalandhar road in his first term. He, however, left the protest midway and the toll was implemented. People now have high hopes from him.

Dr Baljit Kaur, 46
Malaut

A qualified doctor, she left her job in the Punjab health department as an eye surgeon in November 2021. The only woman member in Bhagwant Mann-led Cabinet, she said, “Being a doctor, my first priority will be to set the health facilities in proper order”. As an eye surgeon at Muktsar civil hospital, She was popular as the most accessible doctor and patients used to visit her from far off places. She had been feted four times with state award for best services.

Her husband is employed with the PSPCL. Dr Kaur has a political background. She is the daughter of former AAP MP Prof Sadhu Singh who had won with more than 2 lakh votes from Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 but he had lost his security deposit in 2019. Sadhu Singh didn’t campaign for her due to health issues. Dr Kaur defeated SAD’s former MLA Harpreet Singh Kotbhai by a margin of 40,621 votes in her maiden outing. Soon after the results were declared, she was seen working in Malaut by visiting hospitals and wards.

Dr Vijay Singla, 52
Mansa

In his maiden outing, Singla defeated Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu Moosewala, fielded by the Congress, by a huge margin of 63,323 votes. Singla had joined AAP in 2016 and remained party’s trade wing’s state vice president. A practising dental surgeon, he wasn’t much active in the 2017 poll campaign when AAP had fielded Nazar Singh Manshahia from Mansa. Manshahia had later defected to Congress in April 2019. Having been elevated as Cabinet minister days after he won his first ever election, Singla says he will work diligently and perform the duties entrusted upon him. Though he didn’t play any significant role in the farmers’ agitation, yet peasants voted for him overwhelmingly. With total assets worth Rs 6.5 crore, Singla wants to remove the tag of backward area attached with Mansa. “If health and education facilities are good, no area can be called backward,” he says.

Harjot Singh Bains, 31
Anandpur Sahib

The legislator from Anandpur Sahib gravitated towards AAP after the Anna Hazare movement, and was one of the founding members of the party in Punjab. A native of Gambhirpur village, Bains is an advocate by profession, and has done his LLB from Panjab University. Keenly interested in human rights, he has also done a course in the subject from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Bains was 25 when he helmed the 300-kilometre-long “Nawa Punjab March” against drug abuse in Punjab. He and his group of volunteers took a fortnight to walk from Fatehgarh Sahib district to the border of Hussainiwalain Ferozepur district. These days he is practising at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. His fondest dream is to see a corruption-free Punjab back to the glory it enjoyed during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal as the prime minister of the country. In 2017, Bains contested unsuccessfully from Sahnewal constituency. Locals still remember the spirited door-to-door canvassing by his mother Palwinder Kaur and sister Anmol. He did his schooling from Ludhiana and BA LLB Hons. from Punjab University. He has also been to for a short course in International Human Rights Law. He is a practicing lawyer in Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, 60
Ajnala

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who entered the Vidhan Sabha from Ajnala, had remained active in the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) during his student life before joining the Congress where he went on to become a member of the PCC. He was remained the chairman of Punjab State Subordinate Service Selection Board. He contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 as AAP candidate but lost. He later quit politics and moved to the US before returning back to India in 2014 and started practising farming. In 2019, a case of murder registered at Raja Sansi police station against Dhaliwal. The police is yet to present the challan against him in the court till date.
He secured a total of 43,555 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections to defeat his nearest contender Shiromani Akali Dal’s Amarpal Singh Bony, who secured 35,712 votes. Illegal sand mining is a major issue in Ajnala.

Harbhajan Singh ETO, 53
Jandiala Guru

AAP’s Jandiala Guru legislator, Harbhajan Singh is a 2012-batch PCS officer, who quit as an excice and taxation officer in 2017 to contest the Assembly elections. He defeated Congress’s Sukhwinder Singh Danny by over 25,000 votes

It was in 2012 that he had cleared the PCS examination and was posted as an Excise and Taxation Officer. But in 2017, he took voluntary retirement from the post and contested elections from Jandiala Guru reserve constituency. Although he secured 33,912 votes, he could not win the seat. This time, he was confident of his win right from the word go. “People from all walks of life supported me, they wanted someone who could be available for them round the clock and I was that man,” said Harbhajan Singh.

Harbhajan won from the same constituency with a margin of almost 25000 votes defeating Congress working president and sitting MLA Sukhwinder Singh Danny. Harbhajan takes private tuitions while his wife is a government schoolteacher.

Lalchand Kataruchak, 51
Bhoa

Lalchand Kataruchak has ha d a long history of being politically active and the 2022 was his second Assembly election. He defeating sitting Congress MLA Joginderpal by 1,204 votes to make it to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Lalchand was active in politics from his young age. He had remained a leader of Revolutionary Marxist of India Party before joining the AAP.

Known for his simple lifestyle, Lalchand is a matriculate. The 47-year-old now heads the AAP’s SC wing. According to his affidavit, Lalchand’s total movable and immovable assets are worth Rs 6 lakh. He had contested the 2017 Assembly elections from Bhoa in Pathankot district on the ticket of Revolutionary Marxist of India and managed to garner 13,353 votes on the basis of his image. In this election, he got 50,339 votes while Congress’s Joginderpal got 49135 votes.

Laljit Singh Bhullar, 41
Patti

Bhullar started his political career with then Akali Dal minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon. However, he later joined Congress party and worked for Harminder Gill, who contested the 2017 election and defeating four-time MLA Kairon. A big farmer, Bhullar wanted to become president of commission agents’ association in Patti and expected Gill to support him. To his surprise, Gill didn’t support his name and Bhullar again joined Akali Dal and worked for party candidate Bibi Jagir Kaur in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Soon after, he joined the AAP and was appointed Halqa in-charge.

Bhullar won from Patti by defeating both his former bosses who were contesting from their respective parties. His association with Congress in past helped him to make inroads in Gill’s vote bank. Gill was pushed to the third place.

It was big challenge for the AAP to win over the Panthic district Tarn Taran and party won all four seats. The Congress, which had won all four seats in the district in 2017, had not appointed any minister from there.

Brahm Shanker Jimpa, 56
Hoshiarpur

An year after joining AAP, 56-year-old Jimpa, a former Congress leader and a four-time municipal councillor, is among the newly-inducted Cabinet ministers. Jimpa had remained district president of National Students Union of India (NSUI) at the age of 16. He is the only minister from Doaba, which has given 10 MLAs to AAP. Jimpa operates an industrial unit, and is the vice-president of Carbon Manufacturers’ Association. He is also the president of Faqir Charitable Library Trust, which looks after a renowned religious place Manavta Mandir. Jimpa has entered the Vidhan Sabha by defeating two time Congress MLA and former minister Sunder Sham Arora.

Jimpa was appointed as vice-chairman of Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) in June 2020. He resigned when he denied MC ticket. He was the DCC chief of Hoshiarpur during the 2017 Assembly elections when Congress swept the district winning six out of seven seats. During the period 2012-17, he was Secretary of the PPCC. Earlier, in 1982, he was also anointed as District President, National Students Union of India (NSUI).