Meet the five new players in Bhagwant Mann Cabinet : The Tribune India

Aman Arora: 2nd-time MLA known for oratorical skills

Second-time Sunam MLA Aman Arora is known for his oratorical skills and raising public issues with facts and figures. Many were feeling that “injustice was done to him” when he was not inducted into the Cabinet after the formation of the AAP government in Punjab.

Aman was elected an MLA from the Sunam constituency for the first time in the 2017 Assembly poll. He was re-elected as an MLA in 2022 from Sunam after defeating his opponent by a record margin of 75,277 votes.

His father, the late Bhagwan Das Arora, was also a two-time MLA and minister in the Congress government. Before becoming an MLA, Aman had also contested the elections from Sunam twice, in 2007 and 2012, on the Congress ticket. However, in January 2016, he joined the AAP. Later in 2017, he was made co-convener of AAP. In 2019, he was also appointed chief of the election campaign committee. He did his BA from PU, Chandigarh, in 1996 and has two children — a daughter and a son.

Aman has always been vocal on state and national issues, even when his party was in the Opposition in Punjab. In the recent Budget session, he put the Opposition on the mat and later tried to make the AAP defeat in the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll a big issue. — Parvesh Sharma

Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar: Clean and green Amritsar his priority

The induction of Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar into the Cabinet raised the number of ministers from Majha to five. He will be the third minister from the holy city of Amritsar after Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal (Rural Development Minister) and Harbhajan Singh ETO (Power Minister).

Other two ministers from Majha region are Tarn Taran’s Laljit Singh Bhullar and Pathankot’s Lal Chand Kataruchakk.

He is likely to be given either Medical Education or Health and Family Welfare portfolio. Previous ministers from the holy city — Dr Baldev Raj Chawla, Lakshmi Kanta Chawla, Anil Joshi, OP Soni and Raj Kumar Verka — were given either of the two portfolios.

A soft-spoken radiologist-turned-politician, Dr Nijjar won the elections from Amritsar South in his second attempt. He defeated Congress’ Inderbir Singh Bolaira, who had a firm hold over the segment for 15 years.

Dr Nijjar was among 24 persons booked for alleged misappropriation of funds in 2020. He claims the SIT of the Punjab Police had later given him a clean chit.

Dr Nijjar says his priority will be clean and green holy city. His family runs a diagnostic centre in Amritsar. An admirer of Urdu poetry, he loves Faiz Ahmad Faiz. — Neeraj Bagga

Anmol Gagan Mann: Greenhorn hopes to turn tide for Kharar

Singer-turned-politician Anmol Gagan Mann is a first-time MLA elected from the Kharar Assembly segment. The newly inducted Cabinet minister’s claim to fame is that she emerged victorious from the hometown of former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

She sang the AAP’s campaign song in the 2022 Assembly elections “Bhagat Singh, Kartar Sarabha saare hi ban challe, bhai hun jaago aaiyaan, sarkar badlan challey, bhai hun jaago aaiyaan…”

Mann’s father Jodha Singh Mann, a Leftist, hails from Mansa district. The…