After a phone-in survey, which the party said generated 2.15 million replies including over 93% opting for Mann, the party named him their CM figure on January 19, only a little before the elections. Punjab’s next chief minister will be Bhagwant Mann, a former stand-up comedian, and two-time Lok Sabha MP. 

After leading the Aam Aadmi Party to victory in the Assembly elections, he was promoted to the top position. The AAP deposed the infighting-plagued Congress with him as its primary ministerial face. During his victory speech, an emotional Mann ‘forgave’ his opponents for making multiple personal assaults on him throughout the campaign.

Bhagwant Mann – His Early Life & Career

Bhagwant Mann was born in the Punjabi hamlet of Satauj in the Sangrur district on October 17, 1973. In 2011, he left his comedic career to join the People’s Party of Punjab, a clean-politics experiment led by Manpreet Singh Badal, his nephew of Akali patriarch as well as five-time chief minister Parkash S Badal. But his maiden political attempt, in the 2012 assembly elections representing Lehragagga, a micro municipality under former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, was a flop.

Mann refused to join Badal’s party when it merged with the Congress well before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, instead of accepting the offer of AAP national leader Arvind Kejriwal. As they say, the rest is history. Mann defeated renowned Akali leader SS Dhindsa inside the Sangrur LS seat by a historic margin of nearly 2 lakh votes. 

Mann rose to national prominence as a competitor on the reality Television show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge in the 2000s, having achieved early popularity as a satirist and comic. Navjot Singh Sidhu, as reigning Punjab Congress chairman, was among the panelists on the show.

Mann first ran for office in 2012, as a candidate for Manpreet Badal’s People’s Party in the Punjab assembly elections from Lehragaga in Sangrur. He did, however, lose the elections. Mann refused to support Manpreet Badal’s party when it united with Congress and left the party. Mann decided to join the Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, in 2014 and ran for Lok Sabha from Sangrur. Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, the leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, was defeated by nearly 2 lakh votes. He was then named the Punjab head of the AAP.

Mann In Aam Aadmi Party

Mann resigned as Punjab AAP president on March 1, 2018, in protest over Kejriwal’s apologies to Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drug-defamation case. He did, however, retract his resignation.

Mann relayed the information that it was a chance to campaign out the “corrupt” parties in his folksy style, inundating his statements with shero-Shayari. There were very few rides on the head of his action or process, no over-the-top jokes, and no diving into the throng during these elections. He would remind attendees at every gathering that, while other politicians’ financial worth climbed with each election, his had simply diminished. Bhagwant Mann’s opponents have constantly criticized him for his lifestyle. He has been accused of becoming an alcoholic by his opponents. 

Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister, announced Bhagwant Mann as the AAP’s chief ministerial contender on January 19, 2022. The AAP argued that the poll to choose the CM’s face was rigged. Bhagwant Mann received 58,206 votes in the Dhuri Assembly seat in Sangrur. Mann has been predicting that the party will win a solid majority after the elections. “We’re not afraid; we’ll get 80 seats or more; the others will have to sit and calculate.”

Reactions To Bhagwant Maan’s Victory

“Today marks a momentous day on the timeline in Punjab because 3 crores Punjabis will just be swearing-in as Chief Minister with @BhagwantMann,” according to a tweet. “I swear to transform this corrupt system and to bring Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb Ambedkar’s ambitions to fruition.” “Many experienced politicians have lost elections, and young individuals have triumphed,” observed another. I am confident that fresh ideas will emerge in the state. “This government will think beyond the box,” says the president.

Punjabi Surroundings

Top Congress leaders lost the election in Punjab, including outgoing Chairman Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, and previous Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The hometown of independence fighter Bhagat Singh was drenched in the color “Basanti (yellow)” this morning for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann’s inauguration as Punjab Chief Minister. Yellow turbans, which have become synonymous with comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann, flooded the village of Khatkar Kalan in response to his request that residents wearing “Basanti turbans and dupattas” take swearing. The color yellow was used in the setting and decor.

Mr. Mann stated that three crore people will join him in taking the oath.

“Not only will Bhagwant Mann swear allegiance and become Chief Minister at Bhagat Singh’s Lexical features Kalan on March 16, but so will nearly multiple crore people of Punjab. Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Rangla Punjab would be created by all of us working together. In a video message, Mr. Mann remarked, the oath was taken in front of a crowd of three lakh people. Security has been meticulously planned, with approximately 10,000 security officers stationed throughout the community. Because of the large crowd, the district’s schools are closed today.

Mann paid a visit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his Parliament House office. He informed the Prime Minister about the state’s bad fiscal health, claiming that past governments had left a liability exceeding rupees crores.

Few Final Words

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is strolling to victory in Punjab by steamrolling the conventional players, foreshadowing a seismic shift in Indian politics, little over eight years after establishing itself as a strong force in Delhi by unseating the Congress and weakening the BJP.