Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday announced the name of comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann as its candidate from Sangrur in a fresh released fourth list of 61 candidates the party released.
Other than Mann, AAP has fielded former Congress rebel Sucha Singh Chottepur from Gurdaspur, and Prof Sadhu Singh from Faridkot constituency, taking the total number of party’s candidates from the State to five.
Already the party has announced the candidature of senior advocate HS Phoolka from ludhiana and Dr Dharamvir Gandhi from Patiala. The rest of the eight names are expected to be announced by March 15.
Satirist Mann, who parted ways with the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) after its founder president Manpreet Singh Badal agreed to forge a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for Bathinda parliamentary seat, has recently joined the AAP.
Manpreet, in recent political developments, has tied up with the Congress to contest from Bathinda parliamentary seat against his sister-in-law and local MP Harsimrat Badal in the ensuing lok Sabha polls — a decision which has not gone down well with his close aide, and decided to left the party.
Mann openly expressed his displeasure over Manpreet’s decision to join hands with “the party whose policies they criticised”. Mann, in his resignation letter to the PPP chief, stated that he “disagree with the recent party decisions regarding upcoming lok Sabha polls”.
Mann would now face the Akali stalwart Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, and sitting Congress MP Vijay Inder Singh Singla. Mann, during 2012 State Assembly polls, lost to sitting MlA and former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal from lehra Gaga constituency bagging 21.79 per cent votes in his favour.
Renowned Punjabi comedian, Mann became a full-time politician in March of 2011 when he joined the PPP. He had also expressed his inclination towards the AAP several times in the past, and even publicly advocated the merger of PPP into AAP, stating that Kejriwal had succeeded in doing where PPP had failed.
Chhottepur has unsuccessfully contested 2007 Punjab Assembly polls from Dhariwal constituency, and later joined the Congress. He was also shown the door before 2012 assembly polls by the then Congress state president Amarinder Singh for turning rebel and their refusal to withdraw from the electoral fray against party’s official candidate from Pathankot despite repeated warnings.