New Delhi: Eighty seven-year-old Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday took oath as Punjab Chief Minister. This is Badal's fifth term as the Chief Minister. Badal's son Sukhbir will remain his deputy.
Badal's 18-member cabinet includes 14 colleagues from his party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The remaining four are from its ally, the BJP.
All the seventeen ministers are of cabinet rank, including Sukhbir.
The Badal family has four members in the cabinet. Besides the father and the son duo, others are Adesh Partap Singh Kairon (son-in-law of Badal senior) and Bikram Singh Majithia (brother-in-law of Sukhbir).
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by many political leaders including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Vasundhra Raje, Union Minister Praful Patel, JD(U) Chief Sharad Yadav and others.
Badal had earlier headed two full five-year terms from 1997 and 2007. His other terms were in 1977-1980 and 1970-71.
Only one woman Bibi Jagir Kaur, former President of SGPC, has been included in the ministry though eight women of the alliance (SAD-six, BJP- two) were elected to the assembly.
With additional information from PTI
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