Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) on Wednesday formally reinstalled senior leader and Sangrur Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann as the Punjab unit chief at a simple ceremony held in Chandigarh here on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and in charge (Punjab affairs) Munish Sisodia.The others who were present at the installation ceremony included Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), zonal presidents, district presidents, area presidents and other who’s who of the party, who turned up in great numbers to be a part of the ceremony.Addressing media persons after the installation ceremony, Mann expressed gratitude to the party for reposing its faith in him and said that he would live up to the party’s expectations. He accused Captain Amarinder Singh and the Badals of being hand in glove with one another.Mann said he had been crying hoarse for years now to make the deaf dispensations hear that the Badals had driven the youth of Punjab into drug addiction by conniving with drug lords in the state. He added that Captain Amarinder Singh, who was also following on their footsteps, and had backed out on the poll promises they had made to the people ahead of the elections in the state. Even Party MLAs had been urging the CM to initiate action against the Badals and the drug mafia so that they could visit their constituencies without any fear of being targeted.He said that people of the state were sick of the subsequent anti-people governments and see Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the fast- growing party ever, as the only hope on the vast political horizon.
He informed that the Punjab unit of the party would go the whole hog to reach out to the remotest village and every household with the Delhi model of governance. He said he would try hard to take the party forward on the path of progress for which he sought everybody’s help.Answering a supplementary, Mann said that days before his formal installation he had met party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on apology issue. He said that Kejriwal had not sought apology from Bikram Majithia only, of course, on political considerations, but in other 34 issues as well. But, he had not given him a clean chit on his involvement in the drug smuggling issue. He also said that party’s fight against drug menace would continue till it established a victory over it.Making an answer to another question in this regard, Mann reiterated that Bikram Singh Majithia was hand in glove with the drug lords in the state and was behind spreading drug addiction among the youth in the state.In an answer to another question on saying no to booze, Mann said some vested interests were hell bent on tarnishing my public image by portraying him as a born drunkard. He clarified that he took the decision to say no to it at the Barnala Rally only to silence the detractors.On the issue of Punjab’s water share, Mann said that both BJP-SAD and the Congress party had been politicizing the sensitive issue to earn public blah-blah. They never took the trouble to resolving the issue in spite of the fact that the stakeholders had their governments in Punjab, Haryana and at the centre. Mann said that AAP would take the issue to a conclusive end.