Brahm Shanker Jimpa taking the oath of office and secrecy at the Punjab Raj Bhawan on Saturday. (ANI) A year after joining the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 56-year-old Pandit Brahm Shanker Jimpa, formerly a staunch Congressman and a four-time municipal councillor (MC), is now among the 10 newly inducted Cabinet ministers in the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab.
In 2021, the three-time Congress Councillor was denied the MC ticket by the party during the municipal polls, after which he contested as an Independent and won for the fourth time in a row.
The businessman and social worker is the only minister from Doaba in the new Cabinet. Jimpa, a 10+2 by educational qualification, operates an industrial unit dealing with activated carbon and is the vice-president of the Carbon Manufacturers’ Association. He is also the president of the Faqir Charitable Library Trust – which looks after Manavta Mandir, a renowned religious place in Hoshiarpur – besides several educational and other institutions.
Just before switching over to the AAP after being allegedly sidelined within the Congress at the instance of former minister Sunder Sham Arora, Jimpa was appointed as the vice-chairman of the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) in June 2020. He resigned from the party after he was denied the MC ticket despite being a three-time councillor since 2003.
Jimpa was the District Congress Committee (DCC) chief of Hoshiarpur district during the 2017 Assembly elections when the Congress swept the district winning six out of seven seats. During 2012-17, he was secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). Earlier, in 1982, he was appointed as the district president of the National Students Union of India (NSUI).
Because of his popularity, Arora considered him to be a major threat which led to Jimpa getting sidelined, said a local Congress leader, adding that Jimpa is a grassroots-level leader. Being among the senior-most Congress councillors, he was the perfect candidate for the mayor’s post but, instead, he was indirectly shown the door by the Congress, said another party leader from Hoshiarpur. “But today, he got what he deserved after becoming a Cabinet minister,” said a Congress leader close to Arora.
Sachin Gupta, a close confidant of Jimpa, said that besides his family and friends, the entire Hoshiarpur constituency was elated about his new role.
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