Punjab Legislative Assembly Punjab Vidhan Sabha | |
|---|---|
| 16th Punjab Assembly | |
.svg) | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Established | 1952 |
| Preceded by | Interim East Punjab Assembly |
| Leadership | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 117 |
 | |
Political groups | Government (93) Official Opposition (16) Other Opposition (7) Vacant (1)
|
Length of term | 5 years; renewable |
| Elections | |
| 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 | |
ThePunjab Legislative Assembly or thePunjab Vidhan Sabha is theunicamerallegislature of the state ofPunjab inIndia. TheSixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117members, directly elected from117 single-seat constituencies. The tenure of the Legislative Assembly is five years unless dissolved sooner. The Speaker of the sixteenth assembly isKultar Singh Sandhwan. The meeting place of the Legislative Assembly since 6 March 1961 is theVidhan Bhavan in Chandigarh.
| Date for by-poll | Constituency | Previous MLA | Vacant Since | Reason | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 November 2025 | 21 | Tarn Taran | Kashmir Singh Sohal | Aam Aadmi Party | 27 June 2025[6] | Death | |
In theBritish Raj, an Executive Council was formed underThe Indian Councils Act, 1861. It was only under theGovernment of India Act 1919 that aLegislative Council was set up in Punjab. Later, under theGovernment of India Act 1935, thePunjab 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 intoWest Punjab andEast Punjab and the 79-member East Punjab Legislative Assembly was formed, the forerunner of the current assembly.
After theindependence 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 abicameral house in April 1952, comprising theVidhan Sabha (lower house) andVidhan 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 formHaryana,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 aunicameral legislature.[7]
Thelegislature 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 thespeaker 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 theassembly 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.[8]
In the Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly, 92 members of the rulingAam Aadmi Party form the treasury benches. The mainopposition party in the assembly isIndian National Congress with 18 seats. The other parties which are in opposition are theShiromani Akali Dal, theBharatiya Janata Party, theBahujan Samaj Party andindependents. AAP MLA,Kultar Singh Sandhwan was announced as the speaker of the assembly.[9]
Incumbent Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took the oath of office on 16 March at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village ofBhagat 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.[10] Other 10 cabinet ministers of theMann 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.[11]
| Title | Name | Portrait | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constitutional Posts | |||
| Governor | Gulab Chand Kataria |  | 30 July 2024 |
| Speaker | Kultar Singh Sandhwan[12] |  | 21 March 2022 |
| Deputy speaker | Jai Krishan Singh[13] | 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 ofAAP legislature party | Bhagwant Mann | | 16 March 2022 |
| Leader ofINC legislature party | Pratap Singh Bajwa | | 9 April 2022 |
| Leader ofSAD legislature party | Manpreet Singh Ayali |  | April 2022 |
| Leader ofBJP legislature party | Ashwani Kumar Sharma | April 2022 | |
| Leader ofBSP legislature party | Nachhatar Pal | April 2022 | |
List of committees and chairpersons for the term 2022–2023.[14]
| Alliance | Party | Seats | Legislative Party Leader | Bench | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won[16] | Change[d] | ||||||||||||||
| Aam Aadmi Party | 93 |  73 | Bhagwant Singh Mann[17] | 93 | Government | ||||||||||
| Indian National Congress | 16 |  61 | Partap Singh Bajwa | 16 | Main Opposition | ||||||||||
| Shiromani Akali Dal | 3 | 12 | Manpreet Singh Ayali[18] | 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 | |||||||||||||
| 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 |
| 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 toWorld 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 againstPartition | |||
| 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 toEmergency | ||
| 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 | Incumbent | Bhagwant Mann | Aam Aadmi Party | |||
| Parliament of India | |||||
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| State Legislative Council |
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| State Legislative Assembly |
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| British Raj | |||||
| International | |
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| National | |
