Bhagwant Mann takes over as AAP Punjab chief

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 30

Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) senior leader and Sangrur Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday took over the reins of party’s Punjab unit in Chandigarh.

AAP formally reinstalled Mann as the Punjab unit chief at a simple ceremony held in Chandigarh here on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and in charge (Punjab affairs) Manish Sisodia.

Addressing media persons after the installation ceremony, Mann expressed gratitude to the party for reposing its faith in him and said that he would live up to the party’s expectations.

He accused Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the Badals of being hand in glove with one another.

Mann said he had been crying hoarse for years now to make the deaf dispensations hear that the Badals had driven the youth of Punjab into drug addiction by conniving with drug lords in the state.

He added that Capt Amarinder was also following in their footsteps and had backed out on the poll promises.

Even Congress party MLAs had been urging the CM to initiate action against the Badals and the drug mafia so that they could visit their constituencies without any fear of being targeted, he claimed.

He said people of the state were sick of the subsequent anti-people governments and see AAP as the  only hope on the vast political horizon.

He informed that the Punjab unit of the party would go the whole hog to reach out to the remotest village and every household with the Delhi model of governance.

He said he would try hard to take the party forward on the path of progress for which he sought everybody’s help.

Answering a supplementary, Mann said that days before his formal installation he had met party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on the apology issue.

He said that Kejriwal had not sought apology from Bikram Majithia only, of course, on political considerations, but in other 34 issues as well.

But, he had not given him a clean chit on his involvement in the drug smuggling issue, he said and added that party’s fight against drug menace would continue till it established a victory over it.

Answering another question in this regard, Mann reiterated that Majithia was hand in glove with the drug lords in the state and was behind spreading drug addiction among the youth in the state.

In an answer to another question on saying no to booze, Mann said some vested interests were hell bent on tarnishing his public image by portraying him as a drunkard. He clarified that he took the decision to say no to it at the Barnala rally only to silence the detractors.

Principal Daljit Singh Bhagta from Bathinda also joined the AAP, after Mann took over as the AAP chief.

Bhagta was allegedly insulted by some supporters of an Akali minister. He holds 14 post-graduate degrees, said Mann.

The decision to reinstall Mann as party chief came close on the heels of the party’s core committee unanimously rejecting his resignation and forwarding its decision to the National Political Affairs Committee (PAC) for review last week.

It may be recalled that Mann had resigned the post following the apology controversy.