AAP nominates party MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan as next Punjab assembly speaker

Sandhwan, who will be formally elected on Monday, will succeed Congress leader Rana Kanwar Pal Singh in the post.

Punjab’s new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Friday nominated party MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan as the next speaker of the 117-member assembly. Taking to Twitter, Sandhwan expressed his ‘heartful thanks’ to chief minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kultar Sandhwan with supporters after retaining the Kotkapura assembly segment in Faridkot district, on March 10. (HT Photo)

“Heartful thanks to my Leader Shri @ArvindKejriwal Ji and My CM @BhagwantMann Ji for imposing faith in me as Speaker of the Historical 16th Punjab Vidhan Sabha,” Sandhwan, who was elected as the legislator from the Kotkapura assembly constituency, said in a Twitter post.

Kultar Singh Sandhwan will be formally elected as the speaker on March 21; he will succeed Congress leader Rana Kanwar Pal Singh in the post. Protem speaker Inderbir Singh Nijjar, a first-term MLA from the Kejriwal-led party, administered oath to all newly-elected legislators, including Mann, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the news of Sandhwan’s nomination, and his subsequent tweet, came on a day when Mann, who took oath on March 16 and is currently the only minister in the incumbent government, announced he will induct ministers in his cabinet. The expansion, as well as oath-taking ceremony will take place on Saturday, which will be followed by the first meeting of the new cabinet.

As many as 10 MLAs will be inducted as ministers, informed CM Bhagwant Mann.

Overall, the AAP won 92 seats in the Punjab assembly elections, while the Congress, which won 77 seats in the 2017 polls, was a distant second, bagging just 18 seats. The border state went to polls on February 20, and the counting of votes took place on March 10.