Kamalpreet

Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has set itself up for a clean sweep in the Punjab Assembly elections 2022. AAP's CM candidate from Dhuri, Bhagwant Mann has won with a margin of 58,206 votes. Mann has stated that the oath-taking ceremony of the new Punjab cabinet will be held at Khatkarkalan in Nawanshahr district, the ancestral village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

AAP has taken lead in 91 of the 117 assembly seats after the initial rounds of counting of votes on Thursday. Kejwiral has already started congratulating the people of Punjab for this "revolution". 

With this, Bhagwant Mann is all set to be sworn in as the next Chief Minister of Punjab. Celebrations have already begun at the house of AAP's chief ministerial candidate.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the people of Punjab for this inquilab or revolution after the initial trends started coming in. Kejriwal tweeted, "Many congratulations to the people of Punjab for this revolution."

Mann is a college dropout. He was one of India's most popular comedians before he joined politics. He had risen to prominence after appearing on the late-2000s stand-up comedy show 'The Great Indian Laughter Challenge.' Ironically, this show was judged by none other than Navjot Singh Sidhu, one of Mann's biggest political rivals. 

Mann and his wife filed for divorce in 2015. They have two children, a daughter and a son, who live overseas.

Mann officially entered politics in 2011, He had joined Manpreet Singh Badal's People's Party of Punjab in 2011, however, his political debut turned out to be unsuccessful as he could not win his seat in the Punjab Assembly Elections in 2012. 

Mann joins AAP

Mann joined AAP in March just before the General Elections that year. Mann comfortably won a seat in the Lok Sabha with a margin of more than two lakh votes from Sangrur, his home district.

Five years later, he retained this Sangrur seat but with a reduced margin of a little over one lakh votes.

Mann's Controversies  

Mann has had to deal with his fair share of controversies in the short time he has been in politics. Mann has had an alleged troubled history with alcohol. A video of Bhagwat Mann allegedly drunkenly attending a condolence meeting in Faridkot had gone viral in 2015. Mann was chased out of a gurdwara in Faridkot's Bargari village because he was drunk.

Two years ago, Mann had made a pledge to be a teetotaler at a public rally in Barnala. Though his opponents have repeatedly accused him of breaking this pledge. 

Mann as AAP's chief ministerial candidate

On January 18, AAP had named Bhagwant Mann as its chief ministerial candidate. The 48-year-old two-time Sangrur MP's name was announced at a public event where Kejriwal declared the result of the AAP's 'Janta Chunegi Apna CM' drive in which it had asked the people of Punjab as to who should be the party's chief ministerial candidate.   Mann is the party's state unit chief. The party had received 21.59 lakh responses under its campaign to elect its CM face for the Assembly polls, party leaders said. Around 93.3 per cent people had named Sardar Bhagwant Mann.