MP’s supporters blame Chhotepur’s close aide

The Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is witnessing another round of infighting over the issue of Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann’s appearance on stage, allegedly drunk, at the bhog ceremony of two men killed in police firing at Baragari village in Faridkot on Sunday.

The Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is witnessing another round of infighting over the issue of Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann’s appearance on stage, allegedly drunk, at the bhog ceremony of two men killed in police firing at Baragari village in Faridkot on Sunday.

AAP Sangrur MP Bhagwant Singh Mann. (Sanjeev Kumar/HT)

The MP dismissed all these allegations as baseless on his Facebook page, his supporters claimed, also on Facebook and other social media, that Hardeep Singh Kingra, a close associate of state AAP convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur had started the rumours of Mann being drunk.

“I demand an inquiry into the incident. This is the handiwork of Kingra and he was asked to do so by his mentor, Chhotepur,” said one of the comments at Mann’s Facebook page.

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Kingra, a former Indian forest officer, refuted reports of his involvement in the controversy and claimed that he was not even on stage at the time.

“Some people want to malign the party by running a malicious campaign using fake IDs on Facebook. Mann is my good friend,” he told HT.

Chottepur claimed that a conspiracy had been orchestrated to divide the party. “Kingra is a true worker of the party.”