Who is Bhagwant Mann - will AAP's CM face be trump card for party in Punjab?

New Delhi: The results for the Assembly Elections 2022 are just a couple of days away and going by the different exit polls results, it seems that the Aam Aadmi Party is all set to make history and storm into power in Punjab, leaving behind political heavyweights Congress, BJP and key local player, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Zee News had conducted the biggest ever exit polls to check the mood of the voters in five states that had voted recently, including Punjab.

As per the projections, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party is likely to sweep Punjab Assembly polls by winning between 52-61 seats out of the total 117 constituencies. The Congress is likely to emerge as the second biggest party in the northern state with 26-33 seats, while it would be closely followed by SAD which is likely to win between 24-32 seats, the exit poll projected. While Kejriwal remains the key face of AAP, the party's chief minister candidate Bhagwant Mann, despite being a controversial figure, can very well prove to be the trump card for AAP in Punjab.

Who is Bhagwant Mann?

Here are five key points about Mann, who can very well be the next chief minister of Punjab:

1) Bhagwant Mann was born on October 17, 1973, to Mohinder Singh and Harpal Kaur at Satauj, Sangrur, Punjab. 

2) Before he embarked on his political career, Mann was a comedian, and quite popular too. It was before the internet took over the world but Mann often hit the right note with his comic timings and participated in youth comedy festivals and inter-college competitions. His rustic Punjabi humour connected with political satire made him a popular name, even before he took part in a popular comedy show on television.

3) In early 2011, Mann joined the People's Party of Punjab. He contested from the Lehra constituency in 2012 but was disappointed. It was in 2014 that Mann joined the Aam Aadmi Party and contested elections in the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency. He won by over 2 lakh votes. But again in 2017, disappointment lay in wait as contesting elections from Jalalabad, he lost the elections to Sukhbir Singh Badal. 

4) There were several controversies surrounding Mann, the main being allegations of alcoholism. At a public meeting of the Aam Aadmi Party in 2019, with his mother Harpal Kaur by his side, Mann pledged to give up on alcohol, promising never to touch it again. Earlier in 2018, Mann - who was the convener of AAP Punjab - resigned after Arvind Kejriwal tendered an unconditional apology to Bikram Singh Majithia over the drug mafia case.

5) In 2015, Bhagwant Mann and his then-wife Inderjeet Kaur had filed for divorce. According to some media reports, Mann had later admitted that he probably couldn't give time to his family because of his work. Inderjeet also stayed in US and Mann said he couldn't move there, while she couldn't come to India and they both decided to divorce by mutual consent. They have a son and a daughter.
 

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