Chandigarh: Hours after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Rupinder Ruby resigned from the party Tuesday night and joined the Congress Wednesday, AAP’s Punjab president Bhagwant Mann said it was “high time” that the party declared its chief minister face.
“We need to announce a CM candidate at the earliest. Let me make it very clear. I am not saying declare me as the CM candidate, but any CM candidate,” he told ThePrint. “Because soon it will be too late for anyone to campaign and ensure a victory for the party. We have a clear roadmap for victory ready and this is the only flaw.”
Punjab is set for elections in early 2022.
“There are 117 constituencies in the state and not even 117 days left until the elections. We have to go around every constituency at least two-three times. Where is the time? We have been campaigning but wherever we go, people ask us who is our CM face and we have no answer,” added Mann, a two-time MP from Sangrur.
Ruby was among the AAP MLAs who were demanding that Mann be declared as the CM candidate.
She tweeted her resignation from the party at midnight Tuesday and joined the Congress Wednesday afternoon in the presence of Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Her resignation sparked a war of words with the Punjab leader of the opposition, the AAP’s Harpal Singh Cheema.
Cheema responded to Ruby’s tweet saying, “She was not going to be given the AAP ticket this time and that is why she is joining Congress”
ਰੁਪਿੰਦਰ ਰੂਬੀ ਸਾਡੀ ਛੋਟੀ ਭੈਣ ਹੈ, ਜਿੱਥੇ ਵੀ ਜਾਵੇ ਖੁਸ਼ ਰਹੇ। ਇਸ ਵਾਰ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ 'ਆਪ' ਤੋਂ ਟਿਕਟ ਮਿਲਣ ਦੇ ਚਾਂਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਸਨ, ਇਸ ਲਈ ਕਾਂਗਰਸ ਜੋਇਨ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ। ਕਾਂਗਰਸ ਨੂੰ ਬੇਨਤੀ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਰੂਬੀ ਨਾਲ ਧੋਖਾ ਨਾ ਕਰਨ ਅਤੇ ਬਠਿੰਡਾ ਦਿਹਾਤੀ ਤੋਂ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਟਿਕਟ ਜਰੂਰ ਦੇਣ।
— Adv Harpal Singh Cheema (@HarpalCheemaMLA) November 10, 2021
To this, Ruby replied that he too knew where the party was taking Punjab. “I cannot watch it all silently. When you had the opportunity to speak up, you could not raise your voice either for the people of Punjab or for Bhagwant Mann. And as far as the ticket is concerned, why don’t you contest the elections against me?” she tweeted.
ਸਤਿਕਾਰਯੋਗ ਹਰਪਾਲ ਚੀਮਾ ਜੀ
ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਪਤਾ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਨੂੰ ਕਿੱਥੇ ਲੈ ਕੇ ਜਾ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ, ਮੈਂ ਇਹ ਚੁੱਪ ਚਾਪ ਨਹੀਂ ਵੇਖ ਸਕਦੀ।
ਜਦ ਤੁਹਾਡਾ ਬੋਲਣ ਦਾ ਸਮਾਂ ਸੀ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ ਤੋਂ ਬੋਲਿਆਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਿਆ,ਨਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਲਈ ਆਵਾਜ਼ ਚੁੱਕ ਸਕੇ,ਨਾ ਸ. ਭਗਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਮਾਨ ਲਈ। ਰਹੀ ਟਿਕਟ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਮੇਰੇ ਖ਼ਿਲਾਫ਼ ਚੋਣ ਲੜ ਕੇ ਵੇਖ ਲਵੋ।
— Ruby (@RubyAap) November 10, 2021
During an interaction with the press after she joined the Congress, Ruby said during a meeting of the Punjab AAP MLAs at Cheema’s house Monday, they had admitted that the party’s situation in the state was not good because it had failed to declare a CM candidate.
“But when they were asked by some MLAs supporting Mann to pass a resolution and send it to the party high Command that Mann be declared the CM candidate, nobody could muster the courage. These MLAs are themselves afraid that in case they stick their necks out in favour of someone, their own tickets will be jeopardised,” she said.
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‘No rift in party, MLAs restless without CM face’
Responding to the rift in the party over the CM face, Mann said everyone was independent in a democracy and free to take any decision about their political career.
“We had brought Ruby into the party as a student candidate. She won the elections too. There is no doubt that Ruby wanted me to be declared as the CM face. But it is also true that she was not going to get a ticket from her seat and she was wanting her seat to be changed,” he added.
“She left the party as a result of several reasons. The party can only give a person a runway. How high he or she takes off from there is up to them.”
But are there others also who are ready to leave the party over the issue of not having a CM face to show? “I don’t know. There could be. But it is not about whether they make me the CM candidate or not,” Mann said.
“The party should declare a CM candidate at the earliest. We made many mistakes in the run up to the 2017 elections and we should not repeat those. In fact, on some accounts we are making bigger mistakes than we did in 2017. Then, we had declared our candidates more than six months before the elections. Now as on 10 November, we have not declared a single candidate and people in the party, especially the MLAs, are getting restless.”
When asked if party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was eyeing the top post in Punjab, as he did in 2017, Mann said he had no clue.
“But if Arvindji declares himself as CM candidate I will welcome it and campaign for him across Punjab. But at least an announcement regarding the CM face needs to be made and everyone should not be kept guessing,” he said.
“In Delhi, for instance, before the elections, we had put up posters on every auto rickshaw saying, ‘Kejriwal vs Who?’ We had thrown a challenge to the other parties to declare their CM candidate,” he said. “Now in Punjab, we are dithering over declaring a CM face. And in this state we are quoting surveys that we are the winning party. In Uttarakhand, which is likely to go to polls around the same time as Punjab, we declared a CM candidate three months ago.”
When asked what the party’s inhibition was in declaring him as the CM face, Mann said he had no idea. “It is for the party high command to answer.”
On what will be the strategy for the elections in case a CM face is not declared at all, Mann said it was very difficult to predict the outcome. “We will continue to campaign in the manner that we are doing. But it surely is not our best foot forward,” he said.
“People ask us that if our party has been active in Punjab since 2014 and yet has not managed to find a single person to be declared as CM, when will we do it? It has been seven years. Frankly, we have no answer and it is becoming more and more difficult with each passing day to campaign, especially in the Malwa,” he said.
Is there a chance of his leaving the party? “No. I am an MP and will remain one until 2024. I have a responsibility towards my constituency and I cannot leave the people who voted for me in the lurch,” he said. “As the state president, I have been given a responsibility, and I will do my best to work for the party despite all the handicaps.”
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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