Punjab Legislative Assembly

Punjab Legislative Assembly
Deputy Leader of Opposition		Vacant, INC since 16 March 2024
Structure
Seats	117
Political groups	Government (91)   AAP (91) Official Opposition (16)   INC (15) Other opposition (8)   SAD (3)   BJP (3)   BSP (1)   IND (3)[1][2] Vacant (2)   Vacant (2)
Length of term	5 years; renewable
Elections
Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh, India
Website
Punjab Legislative Assembly
Constitution
Constitution of India

The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the

In the

The legislature comprises the governor and the Punjab Legislative Assembly, which is the highest political organ in the state. The governor has the power to summon the assembly or to close the same. All members of the legislative assembly are directly elected, normally once in every five years by the eligible voters who are above 18 years of age. The current assembly consists of 117 elected members. The elected members select one of its own members as its chairperson who is called the speaker of the assembly. The speaker is assisted by the deputy speaker who is also elected by the members. The conduct of a meeting in the house is the responsibility of the speaker.

The main function of the

The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting.^[4]

Sixteenth Assembly

In the Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly, 92 members of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party form the treasury benches. The main opposition party in the assembly is Indian National Congress with 18 seats. The other parties which are in opposition are the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and independents. AAP MLA, Kultar Singh Sandhwan was announced as the speaker of the assembly.^[5]

History

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took the oath of office on 16 March at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh. Inderbir Singh Nijjar took the oath as Protem Speaker. On 17 March Nijjar administered the oath of office to all the 117 legislators of the Sixteenth Punjab Legislative assembly.^[6] Other 10 cabinet ministers of the Mann ministry, took oath on 19 March.

On 22 June 2022, Speaker kultar singh sandwa announced that the Punjab legislators will get answers on all issues that they raise during the Assembly debates. The answers would be provided during the Zero Hour. This was done for the first time in the history of Punjab Assembly.^[7]

Operation Lotus

Aam Aadmi Party, the ruling party in Punjab, accused BJP of spending ₹1375 Crore in Punjab to bribe the AAP MLAs as part of Operation Lotus. Punjab's Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said in a press conference, "Our MLAs have been approached with offers of up to Rs 25 crore to break away from AAP. The MLAs were told: “bade bau ji se milwayenge”. These MLAs have also been offered big posts. They were told that if you get more MLAs along, you would be given upto Rs 75 crore,"^[8][9]

AAP government called a special Session of the Assembly on 22 September to bring a "confidence motion". Governor Banwarilal Purohit refused to allow permission for the special session. AAP said that Governor was acting on the behest of BJP in cancelling the 22 September session so that Operation Lotus can succeed. Business Advisory Committee of the Assembly has representatives of all the parties and it decides the legislative business that occurs in the Assembly.^[10] The opposition parties Congress, SAD and BJP hailed governors decision to prevent the special session from occurring.^[11] CM Mann said that "Gov/Presi consent before any session of Legislature is a formality. In 75 years, no Presi/Gov ever asked list of Legislative business before calling session. Legislative business is decided by BAC (Business Advisory Committee of the House) and Speaker. Next Gov will ask all speeches also to be approved by him. Its too much." On 25 September, Purohit agreed to summon the special session of the Assembly.^[12]

Leaders

Title	Name	Portrait	Since
Constitutional Posts
Governor	Banwarilal Purohit		31 August 2021
Speaker	Kultar Singh Sandhwan[13]		21 March 2022
Deputy speaker	Jai Krishan Singh[14]		30 June 2022
Leader of the House ( Chief Minister )	Bhagwant Mann		16 March 2022
Leader of Opposition	Pratap Singh Bajwa		9 April 2022
Political posts
Leader of AAP legislature party	Bhagwant Mann		16 March 2022
Leader of INC legislature party	Pratap Singh Bajwa		9 April 2022
Leader of SAD legislature party	Manpreet Singh Ayali		April 2022

Committees

List of committees and chairpersons for the term 2022-2023.^[15]

Composition

By alliance and party

Alliance		Party		Seats		Legislative Party Leader	Bench
				Won [17]	Change
	Aam Aadmi Party			92	72	Bhagwant Singh Mann[18]	92		Government
	Indian National Congress			18	59	Partap Singh Bajwa	19		Opposition
	SAD+		Shiromani Akali Dal	3	12	Manpreet Singh Ayali[19]	6		Others
			Bahujan Samaj Party	1	1	Nachhatar Pal
	NDA		Bharatiya Janata Party	2	1	Ashwani Kumar Sharma
	Independents			1	1	Rana Inder Partap Singh
Total				117			117

By constituency

Past election results

• ^ - Party didn't contest election
• ~ - Party didn't exist
• - Green color box indicates the party/parties who formed the government
• - Red color box indicates the official opposition party

List of Punjab Legislative Assemblies

See also

• PEPSU
• Interim East Punjab Assembly
• Elections in Punjab
• List of governors of Punjab (India)
• List of constituencies of Punjab Legislative Assembly
• List of deputy chief ministers of Punjab, India
• List of speakers of the Punjab Legislative Assembly
• List of leaders of the opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly

References

External links

• "Record of all Punjab Assembly Elections". eci.gov.in. Election Commission of India. Retrieved 14 March 2022.