— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

HAIL FATHER: Shiromani Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal being greeted by his son and party general secretary Sukhbir Singh Badal in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal and 17 other Ministers, including five from the alliance partner BJP, will be sworn in on Friday at a public function at the PCA cricket stadium in Mohali, near here. This will be Mr. Badal's fourth tenure.

Invitees

The former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, the Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Bihar and Rajasthan, Narendra Modi, Nitesh Kumar and Vasundhara Raje respectively, former Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Omar Abdullah are among the invitees who have confirmed their participation.

The former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has expressed his inability to participate citing health reasons.

Results notified

On Thursday, the Election Commission notified the election results of 116 out of the 117 seats of the Assembly. Following violent clashes, polling for the Beas constituency was deferred till March 11.

In the elections, the results of which were announced on February 27, the Akali-BJP combine bagged 67 seats. Three out of the five Independents have pledged support to the new government. The Congress got 44.

After hectic activity, including discussions within the respective constituents of the victorious alliance, it was decided that the new council of ministers would have 13 members from the Akali Dal and five from the BJP.

Sources said a section of the BJP claimed seven ministerial berths based on the ratio of MLAs. However, the Akali Dal managed to prevail upon the BJP's central leadership to accept the division on the basis of ratio of seats contested by each party.

With a number of top Akali bigwigs having lost the elections, the party leadership had to toil hard to find suitable candidates for the ministerial berths. A top party source said that of the 48 Akali MLAs, at least 35 were newcomers.

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