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.