Amarinder Singh to take oath as Punjab CM, Manmohan, Rahul to attend

CHANDIGARH: After steering the Congress to a stupendous victory in Punjab, Amarinder Singh will take oath as Chief Minister on Thursday, a ceremony which will be attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. Amarinder, who turned 75 on March 11 when assembly results were declared, will be sworn in as the state's 26th chief minister along with nine cabinet ministers. The ceremony will take place at Punjab Raj Bhavan at 10 am and the oath will be administered by Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore. The state can have a maximum of 18 ministers. The Congress has 77 MLAs in the assembly. Singh and members of his cabinet will be administered oath by Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore at the Raj Bhawan on Thursday. "Besides Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will attend the swearing-in," a Congress release said. Former Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Ashwani Kumar, Rajeev Shukla, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh will also be present. AICC general secretaries Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni, besides secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari are also expected to attend the event. The ceremony will be a simple and low-key affair, with Amarinder deciding not to spend excessively on symbolism "on account of the poor financial health of the state", it said. The Chief Minister designate has also appealed to all party MLAs and others not to indulge in excessive celebration and to keep the event austere so as not to further burden the "debt-ridden state exchequer". Singh said his government s priority would be to bring the state s economy, "which has been completely devastated under the SAD-BJP regime, back on the rails through every possible measure and innovative, out-of-the-box initiatives". "We do not want to celebrate when the people of Punjab are suffering due to severe financial and other problems," Singh said, adding that there will be time enough to celebrate once his government has brought the state back on the path of growth and development. Several newly elected MLAs including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal, Brahm Mohindra, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit Singh, Pargat Singh, Razia Sultana, O P Soni are in the race for becoming ministers, party sources said.