MOHALI, Punjab, 3 March 2007 — With a stadium full of supporters cheering him on, Parkash Singh Badal yesterday took oath as Punjab’s chief minister for the fourth time along with 17 other ministers of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine.
About 20,000 Akali Dal and BJP activists crammed into the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium here, 10 km from here, to watch Gov. S.F. Rodrigues administer the oath of office to the 80-year-old Badal and his ministers.
The 17 Cabinet ranked ministers include two women and five from alliance partner BJP. There was chaos in the stadium and the ceremony, which marks the return of the Akali Dal-BJP to power after trouncing the Congress government of Amarinder Singh in assembly elections, began over an hour late.
Senior BJP leaders like L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley and chief ministers from other BJP-ruled states were present at the ceremony, normally held at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh. It took Badal a full 20 minutes to reach the dais. The slogans and cheers continued as he stood up with Gov. Rodrigues, provoking the octogenarian to sternly tell his supporters to be quiet.
“This is a solemn ceremony. Please keep the decorum of the event,” he said in a raised voice in Punjabi. The event could only start after that.
Earlier, senior Akali leader and now minister Kanwaljit Singh tried hard to put things in order in the VIP gallery. His requests and admonishments to people and officials, however, failed to make much impact.
At one time, he told senior Punjab bureaucrats that they should vacate their seats and make way for other dignitaries.
All ministers, other than BJP’s Laxmi Kanta Chawla from Amritsar, took their oath in Punjabi. Chawla took her oath in Hindi. The two women in Badal’s Cabinet are Chawla and the Akali Dal’s Upinderjit Kaur. The BJP ministers in the fold, besides Chawla, are Manoranjan Kalia, the No. 2 in the Badal Cabinet, Tiskhan Sud, Swarna Ram and Mohan Lal.
The Akali ministers are: Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Kanwaljit Singh, Upinderjit Kaur, Badal’s son-in-law Adesh Pratap Singh, Sucha Singh Langah, Ajit Singh Kohar, Badal’s nephew Manpreet Badal, Janmeja Singh, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Bikram Singh Majithia (brother-in-law of Sukhbir Badal) and Hira Singh Gabria. Six of them are first timers.
