Op Soni

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Om Prakash Soni is an Indian politician who is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC). He is a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Amritsar Central, and he is also a cabinet minister in the Punjab Government and manages the department of school education.OP Soni started his political career in 1991 when he became the mayor of Amritsar. Following this, he contested elections from the Amritsar West region for the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1997 and won the elections. OP Soni (right) with Captain Amarinder Singh (center) during an election rally.Since then, he was elected twice (2002 and 2007) from the Amritsar West constituency, and after that, he contested the 2012 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections from Amritsar Central constituency and won the election. In 2017, he was again elected as the MLA from Amritsar Central.Even though OP Soni was appointed as an MLA five times from the same constituency, the former Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh didnt include him in his cabinet in 2017. Later, in 2018, he was appointed as the School Education Minister.In 2019, Soni faced trouble when he was appointed as the Minister of Medical Education and Research by Captain Amarinder Singh. Soni did not approve of this change and decided to protest against this decision; he didnt join his office for more than two weeks as a part of the protest. He also went on record and blamed senior party members for the reshuffle that caused several ministers to lose their desired portfolios.In November 2016, senior leaders like Captain Amarinder Singh and Partap Singh Bajwa accompanied MLAs who submitted their resignations to the Punjab Assembly Secretary. This step was taken by them to protest against the ruling of the Supreme Court that was done in favour of Haryana on the Satluj-Yaman Link (YSL). The court judgment stated a 2004 law passed by the Punjab Government as unconstitutional. This judgment was done in favour of Haryana and other neighboring states.OP Soni contested the parliamentary elections against Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar in 2009. Unfortunately, he lost the elections with a slim margin of 6,858 votes. Soni challenged the result in the Punjab and Haryana High Court; along with this, he also filed a defamation case against Sidhu in Amritsar after he said that Soni was involved in drug peddling. In 2017, Soni withdrew the case as Sidhu joined the Congress party.Earlier it was reported that Brahm Mohindra would be the Deputy Chief Minister; however, a last-minute change was made, and OP Soni was appointed as the deputy CM along with Sukhjinder Randhawa. It was reported that Sonis name was nominated because of his closeness to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who personally suggested Sonis name for a ministerial post in the Punjab Government in 2017.On 20 September 2021, Charanjit Singh Channi, OP Soni, and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa took oath as the chief minister and deputy chief ministers, respectively, at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh. On this occasion, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Navjot Singh Sidhu, and the partys state in-charge Harish Rawat were also present at the ceremony. (L-R) OP Soni, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Banwarilal Purohit, Charanjit Singh Channi, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Rahul Gandhi, Harish Rawat.In 2018, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh ordered a mandatory dope test of all the government employees. This step was taken as an initiative towards fighting the problem of drug abuse in Punjab. OP Soni and his son, Vikas Soni, also went to the testing lab to hand over their urine samples for the test. OP Soni with his son, Vikas Soni, handing over the urine samples for testing.