Former Punjab minister Joginder Mann joins AAP after snapping Congress ties

File image of AAP workers in Amritsar, Punjab (Image: Twitter/@ANI)

Ahead of the Assembly elections, former Punjab minister Joginder Singh Mann joined the Aam Aadmi Party  (AAP) on Saturday, a day after snapping his 50-year-old ties with the Congress.

AAP leader and Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha said that Mann's induction will give a huge boost to the party in the state.

"Inspired by Arvind ji's vision, Punjab's former cabinet minister and three-time MLA Joginder Singh Mann ji joins AAP ending his 50-year-old association with Congress. He was presently chairman of Punjab Agro Industries Corp. His induction will give a huge boost to the party's unit in Punjab," Chadha said in a tweet and also posted a photo showing Mann joining the AAP in the presence of the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal.

A leader from the Scheduled Caste community, Mann was miffed with the Congress over "no action" against perpetrators of alleged multi-crore post-matric SC scholarship scam and non-grant of district status to Phagwara. He resigned from the Congress and as the chairman of Punjab Agro Industries Corporation.

In an emotive letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the three-time MLA from Phagwara, who served as a minister in the Cabinets including those of Beant Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Amarinder Singh, said he had a dream that he would die as a Congressman.

"But with Congress patronising the guilty of the post-matric scholarship scheme, my conscience doesn't allow me to stay here," he had said.

Voting for Punjab's 117 assembly seats will be held on February 14 and the results will be declared on March 10.