Punjab polls: Who is Bhagwant Singh Mann?

New Delhi: Bhagwant Singh Mann, a dedicated politician made it to the headlines over the years for the party’s search for power, “Punjab nu Punjab banaan di ladai (The battle to regain the real Punjab),” swearing by Shaheed Bhagat Singh, wearing the freedom fighter’s trademark ‘basanti’ turban and voices ‘inquilab zindabad’ in rallies. Bhagwant Mann’s journey starts from being a comedian and on his way successfully underwent from being a political novice to the CM face of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in less than 11 years.

As AAP is making a swept progress in the elections in Punjab, Mann, who is leading in his constituency of Dhuri, is ready to step in as AAP’s second chief minister after Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.

On January 19, the party declared him as its CM face, hardly a month before the elections. This came after a phone-in poll which received 2.15 million responses over 93% voting for Mann.

The 48-years-old was a two-time parliamentarian from Sangrur, whose fight in this assembly election from one of its segments of Dhuri, has reached the ears of masses. Mann hailed from the family of a schoolteacher at Satoj village in Sangrur, rose to fame at the age of 18 when he released that his maiden audio cassette being in B.Com second year at Shaheed Udham Singh Government College, Sunam. Brushing the social and political satire, Mann soon became the undisputed king of comedy in the state featuring him in popular TV shows such as Jugnu Mast Mast.

He made his debut in politics by quitting his comedy fame as he joined the People’s Party of Punjab, an experiment in clean politics by Manpreet Singh Badal, a nephew of Akali patriarch and five-time chief minister Parkash S Badal, in 2011. However, his first stand at elections in 2012 assembly polls from Lehragagga pocket borough of former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, proved to be a non-starrer. As Badal merged his party before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mann refused to join rather accepted the invitation of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Notably, Mann the Sangrur LS seat by a record margin of over 2 lakh votes, defeating veteran Akali leader SS Dhindsa.