Punjab Legislative Assembly

For the provincial assembly in Pakistan, see Punjab Provincial Assembly.

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.

Punjab Legislative Assembly Punjab Vidhan Sabha
16th Punjab Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Established	1952
Preceded by	Interim East Punjab Assembly
Leadership
Speaker	Kultar Singh Sandhwan, AAP since 21 March 2022
Deputy Speaker	Jai Krishan Singh, AAP since 30 June 2022
Leader of the House (Chief Minister)	Bhagwant Mann, AAP since 16 March 2022
Deputy Leader of the House (Cabinet Minister)	Harpal Singh Cheema, AAP since 21 March 2022
Minister of Legislative Affairs	Ravjot Singh, AAP since 23 September 2024
Leader of the Opposition	Partap Singh Bajwa, INC since 9 April 2022
Deputy Leader of Opposition	Aruna Chaudhary, INC since 3 September 2024
Structure
Seats	117
Political groups	Government (93)   AAP (93) Official Opposition (16)   INC (16)[a] Other Opposition (7)   SAD (3)[b]   BJP (2)   BSP (1)   IND (1) Vacant (1)   Vacant (1)
Length of term	5 years; renewable
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
First election	26 March 1952
Last election	20 February 2022
Next election	2027
Meeting place
Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh, India
Website
Punjab Legislative Assembly
Constitution
Constitution of India

Vacancy

Date for by-poll	Constituency		Previous MLA			Reason
TBD	64	Ludhiana West	Gurpreet Gogi		Aam Aadmi Party	Died on 11 January 2025[5]

History

Main article: History of Punjab Legislative Assembly

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 79-member East Punjab Legislative Assembly was formed, the forerunner of the current assembly.

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 grew by 50 seats to 104 seats. On 1 January 1970, the Vidhan Parishad was abolished leaving the state with a unicameral legislature.^[6]

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.^[7]

Sixteenth Assembly

This section is transcluded from 16th Punjab Assembly. (edit | history)

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.^[8]

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.^[9] Other 10 cabinet ministers of the Mann ministry, took oath on 19 March.

On 22 June 2022, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan announced that the 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.^[10]

Leaders

Title	Name	Portrait	Since
Constitutional Posts
Governor	Gulab Chand Kataria		30 July 2024
Speaker	Kultar Singh Sandhwan[11]		21 March 2022
Deputy speaker	Jai Krishan Singh[12]		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
Leader of BJP legislature party	Ashwani Kumar Sharma		April 2022

Committees

List of committees and chairpersons for the term 2022–2023.^[13]

Committee[14]	Chairperson	Party or Organization
Committee on Local Bodies	Jagroop Singh Gill		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Public Accounts	Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria		Indian National Congress
Committee on Estimates	Aman Arora		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Public Undertakings	Budh Ram		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes	Manjit Singh Bilaspur		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Privileges	Kulwant Singh Pandori		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Government Assurances	Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Local Bodies	Jagroop Singh Gill		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Panchayati Raj Institutions	Gurmeet Singh Khudian		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Subordinate Legislation	Barinder Kumar Goyal Vakeel		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Papers Laid/to be Laid on the Table and Library	Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Petitions	Mohammad Jamil Ur Rahman		Aam Aadmi Party
House Committee	Jai Krishan Singh Deputy speaker (Ex-Officio Chairperson)		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Questions & References	Baljinder Kaur		Aam Aadmi Party
Press Gallery Committee	Naresh Sharma		Punjab Kesari
Committee on Co-operation and its allied activities	Sarvjit Kaur Manuke		Aam Aadmi Party
Committee on Agriculture and its allied activities	Gurpreet Singh Banawali		Aam Aadmi Party

By alliance and party

Alliance		Party		Seats		Legislative Party Leader	Bench
				Won [15]	Change[c]
	Aam Aadmi Party			93	73	Bhagwant Singh Mann[16]	93		Government
	Indian National Congress			16	61	Partap Singh Bajwa	16		Main Opposition
	Shiromani Akali Dal			3	12	Manpreet Singh Ayali[17]	7		Other Opposition
	NDA		Bharatiya Janata Party	2	1	Ashwani Kumar Sharma
	Bahujan Samaj Party			1	1	Nachhatar Pal
	Independents			1	1	Rana Inder Partap Singh
Vacant=1
Total				117			117

Past election results

Years						Others	Total	Majority
	INC	SAD	AAP	BJP	IND
1952	96	13	~	~	9	8	126	64
1957	120	^			13	21	154	78
1962	90	19			18	27
1967	48	^			9	47	104	53
1969	38	43			4	17
1972	66	24			3	11
1977	17	58			2	40	117	59
1980	63	37		1	2	14
1985	32	73		6	4	2
1992	87	3		6	4	20
1997	14	75		18	6	4
2002	62	41		3	9	2
2007	44	49		19	5	0
2012	46	56		12	3	0
2017	77	15	20	3	0	2
2022	18	3	92	2	1	1

• ^ - 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

This section is transcluded from History of Punjab Legislative Assembly. (edit | history)

Punjab Provincial Assembly (1937-1947)
Assembly	Tenure		Leader of the House	Premier	Party formed government		Note
	First sitting	Date of dissolution
1	5 April 1937	19 March 1945	Sikandar Hayat Khan		Unionist Party		Assembly tenure extended due to World War II
			Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana				Assembly dissolved to conduct fresh and Impartial election
2	21 March 1946	4 July 1947	Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana				Assembly dissolved since government resigned against Partition
Punjab Legislative Assembly (1947–present)
Assembly	Tenure		Leader of the House	Chief Minister	Party formed government		Note
	First sitting	Date of dissolution
Interim	1 November 1947	20 June 1951	Gopi Chand Bhargava		Indian National Congress		Interim Assembly
			Bhim Sen Sachar
			Gopi Chand Bhargava
1st	3 May 1952	31 March 1957	Bhim Sen Sachar
			Partap Singh Kairon
2nd	24 April 1957	1 March 1962	Partap Singh Kairon
3rd	13 March 1962	28 February 1967	Partap Singh Kairon				Assembly under suspension from 5 July 1966 to 1 November 1966
			Partap Singh Kairon	Gopi Chand Bhargava
			Ram Kishan
			Ram Kishan	Gurmukh Singh Musafir
4th	20 March 1967	23 August 1968	Gurnam Singh		Akali Dal - Sant Fateh Singh		Assembly dissolved prematurely
			Lachhman Singh Gill		Punjab Janta Party
5th	13 March 1969	14 June 1971	Gurnam Singh		Shiromani Akali Dal		Assembly dissolved prematurely
			Parkash Singh Badal
6th	21 March 1972	30 April 1977	Zail Singh		Indian National Congress		Assembly tenure extended by one month due to Emergency
7th	30 June 1977	17 February 1980	Parkash Singh Badal		Shiromani Akali Dal		Assembly dissolved prematurely
8th	23 June 1980	26 June 1985	Darbara Singh		Indian National Congress		Assembly suspended from 6 October 1983 and later dissolved due to Insurgency on 26 June 1985.
9th	14 October 1985	6 March 1988	Surjit Singh Barnala		Shiromani Akali Dal		Assembly suspended prematurely due to Insurgency on 11 June 1987 and later on dissolved on 6 March 1988.
10	16 March 1992	11 February 1997	Beant Singh		Indian National Congress		-
			Harcharan Singh Brar
			Rajinder Kaur Bhattal
11	3 March 1997	26 February 2002	Parkash Singh Badal		Shiromani Akali Dal
12	21 March 2002	27 February 2007	Amarinder Singh		Indian National Congress
13	1 March 2007	6 March 2012	Parkash Singh Badal		Shiromani Akali Dal
14	19 March 2012	11 March 2017	Parkash Singh Badal
15	24 March 2017	11 March 2022	Amarinder Singh		Indian National Congress
			Charanjit Singh Channi
16	17 March 2022		Bhagwant Mann		Aam Aadmi Party

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

Notes

1. Two members were suspended by congress because of their anti-party activities. These are Sandeep Jakhar^[1] and Vikramjit Chaudhary,^[2] thus they are not bound by the decisions of the legislative party in assembly, however, officially they are still member of the congress as their party affiliation is yet to be decided by the speaker.
2. One of the three SAD MLAs, Sukhwinder Sukhi joined AAP on 14 August 2024.^[3] As per Anti-defection law his membership will be decided by Speaker of Punjab Assembly.^[4]
3. As comapre with previous result of 2017