New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party’s Bhagwant Mann became Punjab’s youngest chief minister Wednesday after taking oath at Khatkar Kalan, freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s village.
“Ishq karna sabka paidaishi haq hai kyun na iss baar watan ki sarzamin ko mehboob bana liya jaye,” Mann quoted Bhagat Singh after swearing in.
In his maiden speech, Mann said a golden chapter had started in Punjab. “I am the chief minister for everyone in Punjab, even those who did not vote for me. I will work for everyone in the state,” he said.
AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was present at the oath-taking.
The venue was awash with yellow, Mann’s trademark colour, after he asked people to turn up in basanti turbans and dupattas.
Freedom fighter Bhagat Singh would sport turbans of that colour, which came to symbolise rebellion.
The AAP won Punjab in a landslide victory on 10 March, capturing 92 constituencies in the 117-seat assembly.
In gratitude to the overwhelming mandate, the chief minister designate Bhagwant Mann had invited “all three-crore people of Punjab to take the oath with him”.
Mann had told reporters: “We know how to run the administration. I have been a member of the (Lok Sabha) for seven years. People have re-elected our government in Delhi. We have experience.”
He had said new MLAs would bring in “new ideas to the state. There will be out of the box thinking in this government.”
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