Punjab Assembly Elections 2022: Who is Bhagwant Mann, AAP’s CM Face For The Upcoming Polls

Aam Aadmi Party today declared Bhagwant Mann as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections.

In the last Punjab Assembly Elections held in 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party went into the polls without declaring a chief ministerial candidate but failed to form a government. This time it is not taking any risks and has named the Sangrur MP as the CM face.

The party named him as the chief ministerial face after more than 93 per cent of respondents voted for him in a phone line survey. Bhagwant Mann Announced as AAP CM Candidate for Punjab Assembly Elections 2022

The 48-year-old Bhagwant Mann was born on October 17, 1973, in Sartoj village in Sangrur.

Mann’s tryst with active politics began with Manpreet Singh Badal’s People’s Party of Punjab in 2011. That debut was unsuccessful at the hustings. Mann couldn’t win his seat in the Punjab assembly elections a year later.

Mann has been a member of the Aam Aadmi Party since 2014 and is a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Sangrur constituency of Punjab. From 2012 to 2014, he had been a member of Manpreet Badal's People's Party of Punjab.

Born on 17 October 1973 in Sangrur district’s Satoj village, Mann is a well-known Punjabi comedian and actor with a reasonably clean image, and is seen as 'outside the political elite', which has become increasingly popular.

Mann had contested on an AAP ticket in the general elections in 2014, and had gone on to become a Lok Sabha MP.

Known for his sense of humour and use of satire to drive his point home on the television show 'The Great Indian Laughter Challenge', and later, in his parliamentary debates, Mann had proved his political mettle after being the only AAP leader to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Sangrur constituency despite a three way fight.

Considering the damage the label was inflicting on his image, in 2019, Mann vowed not to drink anymore and claimed to have become a teetotaler.

Mann had also stirred up a row when he filmed the security pickets on Parliament premises. Later, he defended himself claiming that the purpose of the video was to showcase how Parliament functions.

In an interview in 2021, Mann had informed that he and his wife Inderpreet Kaur had separated in 2015, after being estranged for a while.   Punjab Assembly Elections 2022: Punjab Polls Date Postpones to February 20

Moreover, Mann is also AAP's most prominent face in the state, without any significant competitors. He has stayed in the party despite some big names who had joined aap in the initial stages leaving the ship.

The challenge for Bhagwant Mann is momentous this time around. Between the last and this Assembly election, the fight has turned multipolar. And Mann, hailed as the pride of AAP in Punjab, has to sail the Aam Aadmi Party through a multi cornered contest in the state.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2022 09:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).