Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: In his first address as the new Chief Minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday appealed to the people to be humble and modest.
He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government belongs to every resident of Punjab.
There was a sea of yellow turbans and dupattas at the swearing-in ceremony at Khatkar Kalan village, the birthplace of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office to Mann, who took oath in Punjabi. The ceremony supposed to start at 12.30 pm got delayed by nearly an hour. Mann said this government will work to address issues like unemployment, corruption and farmers’ plight.
“Work starts from today itself. We will not waste a single day. We will ensure qualitative change in education and work out employment channels to stop them from going abroad as our long journey to end unemployment, usher reforms in agriculture, improve hospitals and transform education begins. We are already late by 70 years,” he said.
He added that people will visit Punjab just like they visit Delhi to see its schools and mohalla clinics.
Newly-elected AAP MLAs along with the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and other leaders were wearing yellow turbans.
Mann asked party workers to be honest and polite while interacting with people and asked them to refrain from sending wrong signals on social media. He also said that their opponents are their own people and one should show respect to them.
He said the people of Punjab have created history by electing AAP. “In coming years, it will be taught that when did people started voting without fear and greed? The reply will be February 20, 2022,” said the new chief minister.
He was the only one to take the oath at the event where many people in the crowd and on the dais, sported turbans and ‘dupattas’ in yellow – the “Basanti” colour often associated with Bhagat Singh.
“Rang de Basanti”, an iconic song evoking Bhagat Singh’s sacrifice, played at the venue.
Other members of the cabinet will be sworn in later as the AAP seeks to fulfil the massive mandate it got in the Punjab Assembly polls.
The party, now in power in a second state — after Delhi where national convenor Arvind Kejriwal is the chief minister – won 92 of the 117 seats.
Parties like the Congress, the Shiromani Akali-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance and the combine of Amarinder Singh’s Lok Congress Party and the BJP were decimated by the AAP wave.
Mann is the state’s 28th chief minister, counting also the multiple terms served by some.
Arvind Kejriwal and ministers from his Delhi cabinet, including Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, attended the event in yellow turbans.
Newly elected AAP MLAs too participated.
Mann’s daughter Seerat Mann, 21, and son Dilshan Mann, 17, flew in for the ceremony from the US, where they had moved to along with their mother after the couple separated in 2015.
Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to 48-year-old Mann, who went through it in Punjabi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the new CM.
“Will work together for the growth of Punjab and welfare of the state’s people,” he tweeted.
Though the crowds had started collecting at the village from the morning, the oath-taking scheduled for 12.30 pm was delayed by nearly an hour.
Mann raised ‘Inqlab Zindabad’, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Bole So Nihal’ slogans before beginning his short speech, in which he promised to tackle unemployment, corruption and farmers’ problems.
He said the condition of the state’s schools and hospitals will be improved, like it has been done by the AAP government in Delhi.
People from abroad will come to Punjab to see them, just as they do in Delhi, he said.
He also touched upon the migration of the youth from Punjab to seek jobs abroad.
Gurdas Mann, Karamjit Anmol, singer-turned-politician Congress MP Mohammad Sadique and Amar Noorie were among the singers and artistes who attended the swearing-in.
Mann had a successful career as an entertainer.
He was on TV shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, acted in movies and brought out video albums.
He has been a Lok Sabha MP twice from Sangrur, and the 2022 polls marked his assembly election debut.
The Punjab AAP president won from Dhuri, an assembly segment in Sangrur parliamentary constituency, by a 58,000 votes.
Mann said the swearing-in ceremonies earlier took place at cricket stadiums or the Raj Bhavan.
“Now this oath-taking ceremony is being held at villages of martyrs.”
“Bhagat Singh had dreamt of freedom and the AAP is fighting to take that freedom to the common people,” he added.
He said the martyr was worried in whose hands the reins of the country will go after freedom.
“His concern proved right,” Mann said.
He said people of Punjab created history by giving such a huge mandate to the AAP, predicting that it will feature in the future in the syllabus of educational institutes.
The crowd raised slogans like ‘Inqlab Zindabad’ and ‘Bole So Nihaal’ in the surcharged atmosphere at the rally, where Mann had invited the people of the state, saying the three crore people of Punjab will also take oath with him.
When Mann left Mohali for Khatkar Kalan, supporters showered flower petals on his vehicle.
A supporter, who came from his Satoj village, said, “We have high expectations from him and he will definitely live up to them. The way Kejriwal did good work in Delhi, Mann will also do the same in Punjab.”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik also felicitated him.
AAP chief Kejriwal tweeted, “I am sure that under your leadership, prosperity will return to Punjab, there will be a lot of progress and people’s problems will be addressed. God is with you.”
Congress leader Manish Tewari took a swipe at his own party, flagging on Twitter the invite he got from the AAP to attend Mann’s swearing-in when he did not get one when Charanjit Singh Mann took over as CM last year.
Tiwari, however, did not attend as Parliament was in session.
How he runs the show in Punjab will also have a bearing on AAP’s fortunes in the coming years as the party seeks to expand its footprint further across the nation.
Mann, 48, was elected twice as a Member of Parliament from Sangrur parliamentary constituency before his legislative assembly debut this time.
He resigned as MP on Monday.
He now becomes the first non-Congress and non-Akali leader to become the CM after the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966.
Inviting people of Punjab to his oath-taking ceremony, Mann told them it will be their government.
Weeks before election day, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP declared him its CM face after a phone-in poll, called ‘Janta Chunegi Apna CM’ (people will pick their own CM).
The AAP state unit president was the first choice of over 90 per cent of the 21 lakh callers.
He fought the polls from Dhuri, an assembly segment in his Sangrur parliamentary constituency, winning by a margin of over 58,000.
Born in Sangrur’s Satoj village in October 1973, Mann enrolled for a B Com degree from Shaheed Udham Singh Government College in Sunam in the same district.
He didn’t complete the course, but college gave him a chance to take part in several youth festivals.
He later brought out comedy videos and music albums, including the very popular ‘Jugnu Mast Mast’ and ‘Kulfi Garma Garam.
‘ Appearing in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ was a high point in his career as an entertainer.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has now resigned as the Punjab Congress chief, also happened to have made several appearances on the TV show.
Mann’s political career began in 2011 with the Manpreet Singh Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab, an offshoot of the Shiromani Akali Dal.
The PPP was to merge later with Congress.
Next year, Mann fought from the Lehra assembly constituency in Sangrur as a PPP candidate but lost to senior Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.
In 2014, Mann joined the AAP and contested against Akali heavyweight Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa for the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.
He won by over two lakh votes and the AAP itself went on to win four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.
Mann unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly polls against Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Singh Badal for the Jalalabad seat.
But the AAP won 20 seats in the Punjab Assembly, ending up as the state’s main opposition party.
Mann was made its state unit president.
He resigned from the post in 2018 after Kejriwal apologised to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a defamation case but was back in the AAP-fold soon.
Mann won the Sangrur seat again in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a margin of over one lakh votes.
During his career, Mann has been hounded by accusations that he has a drinking problem.
In 2016, the then AAP MP Harinder Singh Khalsa complained against him to the Lok Sabha Speaker, seeking a change in his seat.
He alleged that Mann, who sat next to him, reeked of liquor.
At a 2019 rally in Barnala, in the presence of Kejriwal and his mother, Mann vowed to give up liquor.
Mann had then accused his political rivals of defaming him by portraying him as a born drunkard.
(With PTI Inputs)
