A day after being suspended from the Shiromani Akali Dal, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal was on Wednesday sacked from the SAD-Bharatiya Janata Party ministry headed by his uncle Parkash Singh Badal following differences within the alliance over reported debt waiver offer from the Centre.
Badal has been sacked from the state cabinet, official sources said in Chandugarh. Sources close to Manpreet, however, said he had sent his resignation following his suspension on Tuesday.
Manpreet was sacked within hours of the chief minister being discharged from PGI hospital where he was admitted last week after he fell in a staircase.
The finance minister was on Tuesday suspended from the party and served with a show cause notice seeking his reply by October 20 after the disciplinary committee of the party recommended his suspension.
Manpreet has been at loggerheads with deputy chief minister and his kin Sukhbir Singh Badal on Central debt-waiver issue. Manpreet, who had reportedly met Union finance minister in New Delhi on Tuesday, was closeted with his aides, including five MLAs -- four of them from the SAD and one Independent.
Besides the MLAs, a number of supporters of the sacked minister and his father Gurdas Singh Badal, a senior party leader, were at his residence.
Sources close to Manpreet said he was likely to meet the media after completing consultations with his supporters. The MLAs present at the residence were Manjinder Singh Kang (Beas), Ajit Singh Shant (Nihalsinghwala), Kanwarjit Singh Brar (Muktsar), Jagbir Singh Brar (Jalandhar Cantt), and Charanjit Singh Channi (Independent, Chamkaur Sahab).
A four-time MLA from Gidderbaha, Manpreet, who is also a member of the political affairs committee, is the first SAD minister to have been suspended.
