Chandigarh, August 09: A month after he stepped down, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal will return as Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab tomorrow following his election to the Assembly. 47-year-old Sukhbir, son of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister in January, becoming the first father-son duo to hold the top two posts in a government, but had to resign due to his failure to get elected to Assembly within the stipulated six-month period.
Unlike the last time, when he was sworn-in at a feisty ceremony in Amritsar which was estimated to have cost Rs 4 crore, the SAD leadership had decided to keep the function a low key affair. “Sukhbir will administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor S F Rodrigues at a simple ceremony at the lawns of Punjab Raj Bhawan here,” officials said.
Sukhbir defeated Congress rival Hans Raj Joshan by 80,000 votes in the by-polls to the Jalalabad assembly seat, paving the way for his re-appointment. The Akali leader was elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 and 1998.
He was Union Minister of State for Industry in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry from 1998 to 1999. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 2001 to 2004 and got re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha.
Sukhbir became the party president in January last year. He was baptised at Takhat Sri Keshgarh Sahib in September 2008.
His wife Harsimrat Kaur was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bathinda recently Sukhbir was appointed Deputy Chief Minister despite some reservations from the state unit of ally BJP..
—–Agencies