Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann to lead mega Punjab roadshow in show of strength

A mega roadshow will be held on Sunday in Punjab’s Amritsar by the Aam Aadmi Party that swept the state polls, winning 92 of 117 assembly seats earlier this week.

Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, who is set to take oath as the chief minister on March 16, will be leading the victory roadshow along with the AAP’s winning candidates in a show of strength. “Arvind Kejriwal will come to Amritsar today. We have to thank the Punjabis who gave us so much love and such a huge responsibility,” Mann, 48, told news agency ANI.

The AAP’s candidates have defeated several top seasoned leaders in the state, including the Congress’s Navjot Singh Sidhu, five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and Akali Dal’s Bikram Singh Majithia. This is the first state election that the party has won after Delhi. The AAP has been trying to expand its national footprint. It also contested the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa.

In Punjab, Bhagwant Mann has said the AAP will work for the common man (aam admi). Ahead of the roadshow, he was quoted as saying by ANI: “Earlier police personnel were deployed outside the houses of politicians while police stations used to lie vacant. For us, security of over three crore people is most important, cops are meant for policing and we’ll make them perform their duty. Police stations are lying vacant. I think the security of the people of Punjab is more important than the security of few people.”

Bhagwant Mann was chosen as the AAP’s CM face in the weeks ahead of polls after a televote in which over 22 lakh people had taken part, Arvind Kejriwal had said.

On Thursday, as the party won the state, both the leaders had hit back over the rivals over the “personal attacks” that were launched against them before elections.