New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is headed for a decisive electoral rout in the national capital as Lok Sabha election results pour in, but its Sangrur MP in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, has turned out to be the lone warrior in what has been a grim result for the outfit.
In its maiden Lok Sabha election in 2014, AAP won four seats in Punjab, including Sangrur. This time, Mann is only the AAP member who is leading — with over 97,995 votes against Congress’ Kewal Singh Dhillon.
Mann is one of the few candidates who have continued with the party in a state where AAP has faced a near-complete decimation, both in terms of leaders or cadres. However, his likely victory may not be a solace for party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, not just because of the party’s dismal show but also because the leader from Sangrur is not really his acolyte.
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In the last five years, Mann has been a constant source of conflict within the party — be it for his relations with Kejriwal or his view of AAP’s presence in Punjab.
“Bhagwant Mann has always been an autonomous leader,” a political analyst told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. “He never owed his origins to the AAP. He was a cultural icon against the authoritarianism and corruption of the Badals,” added the analyst.
“Even during AAP’s ups and downs, Mann has continued his fight against corruption in the state on his own. He has never really needed to win over Kejriwal.”
On criticising Kejriwal
The journey of Mann, a former comedian, as a member of the Delhi-centric AAP has been fairly controversial since he was first elected in 2014.
With a reputation for being a ‘loose canon’ or a ‘motor mouth’, the AAP MP was purportedly heard criticising Kejriwal on tape in a conversation with former Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi in 2015.
“There was no magic in the AAP. We (Mann, Dharamvira Gandhi and Sadhu Singh) won (our Lok Sabha seats) because of our personal charisma,” Mann had allegedly said on the tape.
“Punjab is not a Delhi where your (Kejriwal’s) experiments would work and where you could impose a leadership,” he had allegedly said.
Even though AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had dismissed the veracity of the tape at the time, Gandhi had confirmed that voice indeed was his.
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After the party’s loss in 2017 assembly elections in Punjab, Mann had said that it was not because of the tampering of EVMs — AAP’s common excuse— but because of the “grave blunders” of the party leadership.
In 2018, almost a year after taking over as the president of AAP’s state unit, Mann resigned from the party because of Kejriwal’s apology to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia for his alleged involvement in the drug trade in the state. However, in January this year, AAP declined Mann’s resignation, and the Sangrur MP has since continued as the state party chief.
“Even when Kejriwal apologised to Majithia, Mann made sure he kept his distance from the decision,” the analyst said. “He was a cultural activist first, and has never let his political status overwhelm him.”
Mann’s ‘Pegwant’ avatar
But that is not all.
The fact that Mann has also courted controversies for his alleged ‘drunken’ behaviour on many occasions, may not quite light up the damp mood in the AAP’s antechambers.
From religious events to funerals to Parliament sessions, Mann has repeatedly come under the scanner for his alleged drunken behaviour that earned him the sobriquet “Pegwant Mann”.
However, Mann has often claimed to only be a social drinker and even quit alcohol in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In Parliament, Mann has repeatedly been accused of “reeking of alcohol”.
It was first mentioned in 2015 by former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav, who alleged that Mann attended Parliament sessions drunk. Less than a year later, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh repeated the same allegation as he flagged Mann’s “addiction”.
Ten days after Singh’s allegation, suspended AAP leader Harinder Singh Khalsa also wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that it is “torturous” to sit next to Mann who “reeks of liquor”.
Also read: Arvind Kejriwal should know Bhagwant Mann quitting alcohol is not a sacrifice for Punjab
In November 2016, Mann allegedly turned up at the funeral of Manmeet Alisher, who was burnt alive in Australia, inebriated. Reports claim that the family asked Mann to leave the premises since he kept misbehaving with them and the journalists present at the venue.
On 28 January 2017, Mann arrived two hours late to speak at a rally in Gol Diggi, Punjab. He began his address by blowing kisses to the people attending the rally. The public display of affection went on for another five minutes before Mann collapsed in full public view, only to stand back up, mumble a few words and head back the way he came.
Such incidents have constantly been a source of embarrassment for the party. But now, with his likely victory amid a second consecutive ‘Modi wave’, the party’s approach to its only winner will be eagerly watched.