AAP’s Bhagwant Mann to take oath as Punjab chief minister on March 16

The Aam Aadmi Party’s Bhagwant Mann will be sworn in as the new chief minister of Punjab on March 16, news agency ANI reported Friday evening. The AAP recorded a thumping win in the 2022 Punjab election yesterday, claiming 92 of the Assembly’s 117 seats. The ruling Congress won 18- down 77 from 2017.

The victory means the AAP will form its first government outside the national capital and underlines its ambition to become a national force – the party also contested in Goa and Uttarakhand – before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Earlier today Mann met AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal at his Delhi residence. The two of them, and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodi, exchanged warm hugs and sported big grins. Mann fell at Kejriwal’s feet to seek his blessing.

Mann has already announced the location of his oath-taking – Khatkarkalan in Nawanshahr district, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

“I will take oath as the chief minister in Bhagat Singh’s village Khatkarkalan, not at the Raj Bhawan,” he said yesterday.

Mann’s mother, Harpal Kaur, spoke to ANI after his win, and expressed her joy.

The Congress’s Charanjit Channi – who lost from both Chamkaur Saheb and Bhadaur to add to his party’s woes – has submitted his resignation as Punjab chief minister but he will stay on in that post till Mann is sworn in.

“I have tendered my resignation to the governor,” the outgoing chief minister said, “We accept the verdict of people.”

Kejriwal, meanwhile, responded today to Prime Minister Modi congratulating the AAP for its Punjab success. The Delhi chief minister said ‘Thank you, sir’.