Sukhbir Badal takes oath as Deputy CM for the second time

BadalAkali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal took oath as Deputy CM for the second time within eight months. He stayed out of the Punjab government for almost 40 days. Presently, his father Parkash Singh Badal is ruling the Punjab State and this is the second innings for Sukhbir Badal in the Punjab Government.

He defeated the congress candidate by a record 82,000 votes during Jalalabad by-election last week.

Now there are five members from the Badal family in the 16-member state cabinet, which includes Badal's nephew Manpreet Badal as finance minister, son-in-law Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon as food and supplies minister and Janmeja Singh Sekhon, as irrigation minister.

At the oath taking ceremony, there were very few people this time. The state had spent a lot of public money for the earlier time, which took place in Amritsar on January 21,
2009 and the Badal government was criticized for the same by opposition parties and media.

This is for the first time when Shkhbir Badal gets entry for the Punjab Assembly. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government he was the Union Minister of State for Industries.