Punjab elections: Meet the Mann of the moment

Bhagwant Mann’s folksy style topped by biting sarcasm, particularly ‘kikli’ (satirical speech) in which he targets politicians and issues, has been a hit in rural Punjab, particularly Malwa that accounts for 69 of the 117 assembly seats

The announcement of two-time Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann’s name by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal as the party’s chief ministerial face in Punjab did not come as a surprise to anyone.

Aam Aadmi Party Punjab president Bhagwant Mann addressing the media and supporters after being named the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate in Mohali on Tuesday afternoon. (Ravi Kumar/HT)

Mann, who is also the AAP’s state president, is easily its most popular leader. His selection as the CM face by people in the phone line survey of this kind – 93.3% of the 21-lakh plus respondents favoured him – undertaken by the party was on the expected lines. The 48-year-old political leader, who has come a long way with Tuesday’s announcement despite several controversies, is a proven crowdpuller for his party for which he has been leading the campaign from its first electoral outing in the state. His folksy style topped by biting sarcasm and side-splitting jokes, particularly ‘kikli’ (satirical speech) in which he targets politicians and issues, have been a huge hit in the rural areas of Punjab, particularly the Malwa region having 69 of the 117 seats and on which the AAP counts the most.

Mann’s tryst with politics

A college dropout, the humorist-turned-politician first flirted with politics in 2011 by joining the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) which was set up by Manpreet Singh Badal (now in the Congress) after parting ways with the Shiromani Akali Dal. He took on former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal in Lehra assembly constituency in the 2012 elections, but trailed in the third position. When Badal decided to forge an alliance with the Congress, Mann did not follow him, opting for the AAP instead, and he has not looked back since.

In 2014, Mann won the Sangrur seat by more than 2.11 lakh votes, the highest margin in the state. When the newbie outfit contested its first assembly election in 2017, he crisscrossed the state to campaign for the party candidates, besides taking on SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal in the latter’s stronghold of Jalalabad. While he lost to Sukhbir and came second ahead of Congress’ Ravneet Singh Bittu (now MP from Ludhiana), his party won 20 seats to become the principal opposition party.

In 2019, when all other party candidates in the state forfeited their security deposits, he again scored a spectacular win in his Sangrur parliamentary constituency by over 1 lakh votes, and is today the only AAP MP in the Lok Sabha.

Brush with controversies

The AAP CM-face’s journey has not been without controversies, particularly his alleged drinking problem, as embarrassing videos kept surfacing from time to time showing him in an inebriated state. In January 2019, he took a public pledge, with his mother Harpal Kaur by his side, to quit drinking alcohol to avoid any embarrassment to the party. “I have taken a solemn vow to say ‘no’ to booze for good in my mother’s presence,” he told the gathering at a public meeting also attended by Kejriwal.

The rivals have often portrayed him as unfit for this reason, and are already targeting him. The Congress social media team and party volunteers have been running a campaign, #Pegwant, on social media against him, despite his assertions that he has given up alcohol and turned sober. Mann was once also accused of compromising parliamentary security by live-streaming the security arrangements at the Parliament House on social media and several parties had demanded action against him.