This is a clear signal that Badal junior will be re-inducted into the cabinet.

The Badal government has two years and seven months to go before the next assembly poll in Punjab in Feb-March 2012.

Akali Dal leaders confirmed that Sukhbir was likely to return to his post once he is elected.

'Whether in the party (Akali Dal) or the government, it is he (Sukhbir) who calls the shots. His being part of the government makes his functioning more effective,' a senior Akali Dal leader told IANS.

Chief Minister Badal has left it to Sukhbir to decide if and when he wants to rejoin the Punjab government.

When he was made second-in-command in his father's government, Sukhbir's elevation was the first instance in India's political history where a father-son duo held the top two jobs in a government at the same time.

This was followed by Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi when he designated his son M.K. Stalin, who was already a minister in the state government, as his deputy chief minister May this year.

Badal's government has his nephew Manpreet Badal as finance minister, son-in-law Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon as food and supplies minister and relative Janmeja Singh Sekhon as irrigation minister.

Another relative, Sukhbir's brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia, had quit as a cabinet minister in January this year to pave the way for Sukhbir's induction. Sukhbir's wife, Harsimrat Kaur, is the Akali Dal member of parliament from Bathinda.

(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)