Bhagwant Mann: Now CM, former comedian gets down to serious business

Chandigarh: From a comedian to Punjab chief minister, Bhagwant Mann has seen a phenomenal rise in a political career of just over a decade.

He was sworn in as CM at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar district. At the mega public event, Mann accepted a huge burden of expectations -- his Aam Aadmi Party had swept the assembly polls, winning 92 of the 117 assembly seats.

How he runs the show in Punjab will also have a bearing on AAP’s fortunes in the coming years as the party seeks to expand its footprint further across the nation. Mann, 48, was elected twice as a Member of Parliament from Sangrur parliamentary constituency before his legislative assembly debut this time. He resigned as MP on Monday. He now becomes the first non-Congress and non-Akali leader to become the CM after the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966. Inviting people of Punjab to his oath-taking ceremony, Mann told them it will be their government.

Weeks before election day, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP declared him its CM face after a phone-in poll, called ‘Janta Chunegi Apna CM’ (people will pick their own CM). The AAP state unit president was the first choice of over 90 per cent of the 21 lakh callers.

He fought the polls from Dhuri, an assembly segment in his Sangrur parliamentary constituency, winning by a margin of over 58,000. Born in Sangrur’s Satoj village in October 1973, Mann enrolled for a B Com degree from Shaheed Udham Singh Government College in Sunam in the same district. He didn’t complete the course, but college gave him a chance to take part in several youth festivals