NEW DELHI: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday dismissed claims by Congress and BJP of unrest brewing among AAP MLAs, tamping down speculation that the ripples from AAP’s Delhi debacle may pose a risk to his govt.
Talking to reporters after the surprise move of party boss Arvind Kejriwal to summon Punjab CM, ministers, MPs and MLAs to Delhi, Mann took on Congress and said “switching sides is Congress’s culture” and reminded Partap Singh Bajwa, the leader of opposition in Punjab, that his party drew a blank in Delhi.
Ahead of the meeting, which AAP said was attended by all 92 Punjab MLAs, Bajwa had alleged that the party was preparing the ground to oust Mann from the CM’s post. He had also claimed that over 30 AAP MLAs were in touch with his party.
Meeting sparks speculation about instability in Punjab AAP
Instead of counting our MLAs, he should see how many Congress candidates won in Delhi,” Bhagwant Mann said. Kejriwal and other senior functionaries held a meeting with Punjab functionaries to ostensibly thank them for their involvement in Delhi campaign.
According to AAP, the meeting at Kapurthala House saw all MLAs from Punjab and MPs from the state come together in what the party projected as a show of solidarity and normalcy amid the gloom of the Delhi loss. Besides Kejriwal and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, national organisational secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak and RS MP Raghav Chadha were present.
Kejriwal is learnt to have asked the Punjab MLAs to reconnect with voters while working unitedly to pave the way for AAP’s return to office in 2027. The timing of the meeting following AAP’s defeat in Delhi had sparked speculation about instability in the party’s Punjab unit. Asked about Bajwa’s allegation that he could quit AAP with a group of MLAs, Mann said, “Let them say so. We cultivated the party with hard work by going to every nook and corner of the state. They don’t worry about their own party and find fault with others. It is Congress that has a culture of switching parties.”
BJP’s newly-elected Rajouri Garden MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa claimed Mann’s “nervousness and body language” after the meeting “supports the conspiracy theory” that he had spoken of on Monday. Sirsa had alleged that Kejriwal was scripting a narrative to oust Mann.
AAP’s estranged RS MP Swati Maliwal also took a dig at Kejriwal and said, “Some people have started treating Punjab as their personal ATM. Today, massive corruption is rampant in Punjab.”