A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Punjab Legislative Assembly | |
|---|---|
| 16th Punjab Assembly | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Established | 1952 |
| Preceded by | Interim East Punjab Assembly |
| Leadership | |
Banwarilal Purohit since 31 August 2021 | |
Vacant, INC since 16 March 2024 | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 117 |
 | |
Political groups | Government (91)
Official Opposition (15)
Other opposition (9) Vacant (2)
|
Length of term | 5 years; renewable |
| Elections | |
| First-past-the-post | |
First election | 26 March 1952 |
Last election | 20 February 2022 |
Next election | February 2027 or earlier |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh, India | |
| Website | |
| Punjab Legislative Assembly | |
| Constitution | |
| Constitution of India | |
The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab in India. The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 members, directly elected from 117 single-seat constituencies. The tenure of the Legislative Assembly is five years unless dissolved sooner. The Speaker of the sixteenth assembly is Kultar Singh Sandhwan. The meeting place of the Legislative Assembly since 6 March 1961 is the Vidhan Bhavan in Chandigarh.
History
In the British Raj, an Executive Council was formed under The Indian Councils Act, 1861. It was only under the Government of India Act 1919 that a Legislative Council was set up in Punjab. Later, under the Government of India Act 1935, the Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted with a membership of 175. It was summoned for the first time on 1 April 1937. In 1947, Punjab Province was partitioned into West Punjab and East Punjab and the East Punjab Legislative Assembly was formed, the forerunner of the current assembly consisting of 79 members.
After the independence of India, on 15 July 1948, eight princely states of East Punjab grouped together to form a single state, Patiala and East Punjab States Union. The Punjab State Legislature was a bicameral house in April 1952, comprising the Vidhan Sabha (lower house) and Vidhan Parishad (upper house). In 1956 that state was largely merged into Punjab, the strength of the Vidhan Parishad of the new State of Punjab was enhanced from 40 seats to 46 seats and in 1957, it was increased to 51. Punjab was trifurcated in 1966 to form Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab. The Vidhan Parishad was reduced to 40 seats and the Vidhan Sabha was grown by 50 seats to 104 seats. On 1 January 1970, the Vidhan Parishad was abolished leaving the state with a unicameral legislature.[3]
Legislature
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 assembly is to pass laws and rules. Every bill passed by the house has to be finally approved by the governor before it becomes applicable.
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 | |||||||