Trio in Modi cabinet

Jalandhar: Hoshiarpur MP Som Parkash is among the first-timers to be part of Modi’s Cabinet. A former IAS officer, he won the Hoshiarpur seat with a good margin. He had previously won the Assembly polls from Phagwara in 2017. Like his predecessor from the same seat (Vijay Kumar Sampla), Parkash has also bagged the position of Minister of State after being elected MP from the reserved constituency of Hoshiarpur. He along with Sunny Deol are being credited for increasing BJP’s vote share in the state. Parkash is also known for philanthropy. 

Bathinda: Three-time Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal took oath as Union minister for the second consecutive term. She was the Minister for Food Processing Industry in the previous NDA regime. A few days ago, Harsimrat had said she wasn’t keen on the cabinet berth and would rather like to raise issues confronting Punjab in the Lok Sabha. Harsimrat scored a hat-trick from Bathinda by defeating Congress’ Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. She had been projecting AIIMS, Bathinda, as her major achievement for the constituency, while promising to bring in more such big ticket projects in future. 

Amritsar: The inclusion of RS member Hardeep Singh Puri (67), who unsuccessfully contested the LS elections from Amritsar, has instilled a fresh ray of hope as far as development of the holy city is concerned. Though he was tagged as an outsider, he had strongly placed in point his family roots in Amritsar and had often said he would maintain the bond he had established during campaigning here. In his vision document, Puri had said he dreamt Amritsar to be a model for modern rural and urban infrastructure anchored in Modi’s flagship programmes.