Chandigarh, January 18
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab President and Member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann will be the chief ministerial candidate of AAP for upcoming Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections. In a potent event organised by the party on Tuesday, AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal declared Bhagwant Mann as party’s CM face. During this event, along with Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, Harpal Singh Cheema, Leader of Opposition, Jarnail Singh, In-charge Punjab affairs and Raghav Chadha Co-In-charge Punjab affairs, were also present. Bhagwant Mann’s mother Harpal Kaur and sister Manpreet Kaur were present on the occasion and delivered an emotional message.
Announcing Bhagwant Mann’s name as CM candidate, Arvind Kejriwal said that 21, 59, 437 people had expressed their opinion on the number, released by AAP on January 13th for the same. He said that 93.3 percent people elected Bhagwant Mann as their choice to be Punjab’s CM and now party has officially declared him as its CM candidate for the upcoming elections. Navjot Singh Sidhu came out as second choice with 3.6% votes. While declaring Bhagwant Mann as party’s CM face Kejriwal said, “Every Punjabi is proud of my younger brother Bhagwant Mann.”
Kejriwal said, “I had already excluded myself from the race of Chief Minister, but some people still suggested my name. We excluded all the votes that suggested my name. Traditional parties often hand over the power to their immediate family members and relatives. Bhagwant is my younger brother, if I had declared him as the chief minister’s face myself; people would have said that I’ve chosen my brother as CM candidate. That’s why we started a new democratic tradition to elect the CM candidate. For the first time in the history of India, the people of Punjab have chosen their chief minister candidate.”
As soon as the name of Bhagwant Mann was announced as the CM candidate of party, the AAP leaders, workers and volunteers, whole cadre present there erupted with joy. Bhagwant Mann was seen getting emotional too after hearing the announcement. Kejriwal hugged Bhagwant Mann and gave him love and best wishes. The party came with special preparations for Bhagwant Mann. There was a video with the highlights of Mann’s life and messages from his loved ones too.
Mann addressed the gathered media there and said that he is a dedicated soldier of the party and he’d fulfil every responsibility that’s bestowed upon him by the party as well as the people of Punjab. He said that it was an important day for him and party and now his responsibility has doubled. Mann added, “But, we won’t celebrate today. We’ll truly rejoice once we succeeded in our aim to make Punjab happy and prosperous again.” He reiterated that AAP’s agenda is to eradicate drugs from Punjab and to provide employment and quality education to our youth and he’ll celebrate only after achieving all these goals.
Mann said that his dream is to make Punjab drug free, to provide sufficient employment, best and free education and he wants to make Punjab’s agriculture and farmers prosperous, and he’ll not rest until all these dreams came true. Mann said that Aam Aadmi Party will bring Punjab on the top again and it’ll again be our country’s jewel like it used to be.
Mann said that he joined politics only to bring back the prosperity and glory of Punjab. At every platform, from road to Parliament of the country, he’d raised his voice for Punjab and for the people of Punjab and he’ll continue to do the same. He said that the people of Punjab have given a lot of love to both his comedy and politics. Mann assured that on becoming the Chief Minister, he will use this power invested in him by the people to work for the people. After forming the government every decision of the party will be pro-people and he will work for the poor, downtrodden and common people.
