Punjab Elections 2022: AAP's CM candidate Bhagwant Mann to contest from Dhuri seat

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Bhagwant Mann, Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate for the Punjab Assembly polls, will contest the elections from Dhuri, Sangrur district.

"AAP CM candidate Bhagwant Mann to contest from Dhuri, Sangrur district," party leader Raghav Chadha said.

Dhuri Assembly seat is a part of the Sangrur parliamentary seat. In the previous elections held in 2017, Congress leader Dalvir Singh Goldy had won from Dhuri. Dalvir defeated AAP's candidate Jasvir Singh Jassi Sekhon. While Dalvir secured 49,347 votes, Jasvir had pocketed 46,536 votes. 

Earlier on Tuesday, AAP MP from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann, was named as the party's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls. "Aam Aadmi Party Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur constituency in Punjab Bhagwant Mann will be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Assembly elections," said the party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal while addressing a press conference.

The two-time Sangrur MP turned emotional -– seemingly wiping tears -- as AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal announced the party’s choice, saying 93 per cent of respondents had picked him in a poll in which people phoned in or sent messages indicating their choice.

Addressing the media and party workers, Mann, 48, had assured that he will bring Punjab back to its more prosperous days. He invoked former President A P J Abdul Kalam, who wanted people to dream big.

"The dream of turning Punjab into Punjab again does not let us sleep, the dream of giving jobs to unemployed youth and saving them from drugs does not let us sleep, the dream of turning farming into a remunerative profession does not let us sleep,” Mann said.

He said he wanted to transform Punjab into a state from where people didn’t need to go abroad to find jobs. Mann was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sangrur in 2014 and 2019. Born in Satoj village, the satirist-comedian joined the Manpreet Singh Badal-led People's Party of Punjab in 2011.

He joined the AAP in 2014. Pitted against Akali heavyweight Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Mann won the Sangrur LoK Sabha seat by a margin of over two lakh votes. He won again from there in 2019.

At a rally in Barnala, in the presence of Kejriwal and his mother, the former comedian vowed to give up liquor. He had then accused his political rivals’ of defaming him by portraying him as a “born drunkard”.

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