Bhagwant Mann to take over as AAP’s Punjab chief again

Mann had resigned from the post on March 16, 2018, to protest against AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s apology to Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia to settle a drug charge-related defamation case.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann will again take over the reins of the party’s Punjab unit on Wednesday.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann along with his mother during a rally in Punjab’s Barnala earlier in January. (File Photo) (HT Photo)

Mann, who represents Sangrur parliamentary constituency, will resume charge at a simple ceremony in the presence of Delhi deputy chief minister and Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia, a party release said. The decision to reinstate him as the state unit president comes four days after the core committee of the Punjab AAP had appealed to the party’s political affairs committee to reject his resignation from the post.

Mann had resigned from the post of the state chief on March 16, 2018, to protest against AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Kejriwal’s apology to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia to settle a drug charge-related defamation case.

Though the AAP central leadership did not take any decision on his resignation, Mann had stopped functioning as the party chief.

Reacting to the move, Punjabi Ekta Party president Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who quit the AAP to form his separate party, said that Mann should explain his stand on Kejriwal’s apology. “Mann had given his resignation to protest against the apology, but then kept giving an excuse to people for one year that he could not meet Kejriwal. This was a lame excuse,” he added.