The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicamerallegislature of the state of Punjab in India. Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 members, directly elected from 117 single-seat constituencies. The tenure of the Legislative Assembly is five years unless dissolved sooner. The current Speaker of the Assembly is Kultar Singh Sandhwan and Secretary of the Assembly is Mr. Surinder pal since April, 2021. The meeting place of the Legislative Assembly since 6 March 1961 is the Vidhan Bhavan in Chandigarh.
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 a bicameral house in April 1952, comprising the Vidhan Sabha (lower house) and Vidhan 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 form Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab. The Vidhan Parishad was reduced to 40 seats and the Vidhan Sabha was grown by 50 seats to 104 seats. On 1 January 1970, the Vidhan Parishad was abolished leaving the state with a unicameral legislature.[5]
^Two members were suspended by congress because of their anti-party activities. These are Sandeep Jakhar[1] and Vikramjit Chaudhary,[2] thus they are not bound by the decisions of the legislative party in assembly, however, officially they are still member of the congress as their party affiliation is yet to be decided by the speaker.
^One of the three SAD MLAs, Sukhwinder Sukhi joined AAP on 14 August 2024.[3] As per Anti-defection law his membership will be decided by Speaker of Punjab Assembly.[4]
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