Punjab Elections | AAP takes a calculated risk in naming Bhagwant Mann its CM face

Bhagwant Mann is AAP's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Punjab assembly polls.

On January 18, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) decided to pitchfork Sangrur Member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann as its Chief Minister candidate. The announcement came at the culmination of a unique exercise of seeking public opinion through an open poll as to who should have the honour.

This is perhaps the first time a political party, which according to pre-poll surveys is a principal challenger to the incumbent Congress in Punjab, took recourse to crowd sourcing the decision-making process that traditionally is internal to the party, and its leadership.

During his frequent whistle-stop tours of Punjab over the past few months, AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal was repeatedly pounded by the media on who would be its CM face. Now AAP steals a march over the Congress and other contenders including the BJP-Punjab Lok Congress of Amarinder Singh.

Ever since his debut in Parliament, Mann remains the most visible face of the party. His success can be gauged by the fact that he is the lone MP among the four who were elected from Punjab to Parliament in 2014 to retain his seat five years later. Mann continues to make frequent interventions on issues concerning Punjab, and does it with vigour in his trademark style.

Hailing from a farming Jat Sikh family in Sangrur district, which is in the heart of politically-significant Malwa region of Punjab, Mann made a name for himself as an artiste who specialised in comedy. As compared to Doaba and Majha, the other two regions of Punjab, Malwa contributes 69 of the 117 legislators in the assembly.

When the people of Punjab speak through the ballot on February 20, they will have to determine whether they have the trust in Mann to deliver the promises of AAP and his own anguish for general state of affairs.

The Sangrur MP who sports a turban both in colour and style that is associated with Bhagat Singh fashioned himself as one who is willing to stand up for the rights of the common people on issues like drug-menace, farm distress, unemployment, and related ills that crept into the society of a state of industrious people. His early foray as a comedian employing satire to establish connection with the youth remains his forte, especially in the rural areas.

Having little experience of office, Mann remains untested on issues of governance, but then as the saying goes humour is a serious business. He would also have to work to counter his image created by opponents as one suffering from alcohol abuse. Following the announcement, social media posts showed the issue could be whipped up by parties in the opposition during the campaign.

Dismissing his candidature, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal charged Mann was selected since the party could not find anyone else willing to be the face in these elections. For the past 15 years, Badal is the strategist for the party, and considered a natural candidate for the top political post in Punjab. He was an understudy to his father Parkash Singh Badal during the latter's 2007-2017 tenure as Chief Minister.

There is a yearning in a section of the state to have a choice of parties other than the traditional two-party option of the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal. This time, there is a problem of plenty, and the field is crowded. Other than these, the BJP teamed up with Punjab Lok Congress, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) of former Union minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who incidentally was defeated by Mann in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Adding to this is a faction of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, the farmers' front who led the over yearlong protest against the farm laws to contest the polls.

In declaring Mann, AAP demonstrated it learnt a lesson from the tactical mistake it made in the 2017 assembly polls when the party was a clear favourite when the electoral race began. However, in the run up to the day of polling, AAP could not come up with a person who would be the Chief Minister amid chatter around Kejriwal occupying the post if the party came to power.

The prospect of an outsider with roots in neighbouring Haryana assuming office in Punjab added to its woes just as the other established political parties decided to close ranks and prevent the emergence of AAP as a new party in the power structure of the state. In addition, AAP’s dalliance with people associated with radicals caused concern. Despite these factors, the party won 20 seats, and emerged as the main party in the opposition.

On the Chief Minister’s issue, the Congress is facing a problem with its state party chief Navjot Sidhu pushing his own candidature, a move that can cause serious damage after Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit, was anointed the successor to Amarinder Singh. The BJP-Lok Congress-SAD (Sanyukt) is yet to announce who could lead the formation. Lines for battle for the ballot are just being drawn.

KV Prasad is a senior political journalist.

Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.