Newly elected MLA Sanjeev Arora to be inducted as Punjab minister on Thursday

The AAP government in Punjab will effect a Cabinet expansion on Thursday with the induction of newly elected MLA from Ludhiana West assembly seat Sanjeev Arora as a minister, sources said.

According to them, Governor Gulab Chand Kataria will administer an oath of office and secrecy in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday afternoon.

Arora was elected as an MLA in the June 19 Ludhiana West assembly bypoll after defeating Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu by a margin of 10,637 votes. The bypoll was necessitated following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.

Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal had, during the bypoll campaign, said that Arora would be made a minister if he was elected a legislator. Arora, an industrialist, resigned as a Rajya Sabha member on Tuesday. At present, there are 16 ministers, including the chief minister, in the Punjab Cabinet, which can have 18 ministers.

The AAP government had carried out its last cabinet rejig in September last year when it inducted five new ministers after dropping four.

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