New Delhi: Congress MP Manish Tewari and AAP MP Bhagwant Mann during the Winter Session of Parliament
Highlights
- Bhagwant Mann swore in as the 18th CM of Punjab today.
- Congress leader Manish Tewari thanked Mann for inviting him, although he couldn't go.
- Tewari claimed that he was not invited when Ex-CM Channi swore in.
AAP leader Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday swore in as the chief minister of Punjab in Khatkar Kalan. He had invited Congress leader Manish Tewari for his oath-taking ceremony at Bhagat Singh's village in Punjab. Even as Tewari couldn't go, he extended his gratitude for the invitation.
"I congratulate Bhagwant Mann on being sworn in as Chief Minister. I thank him for inviting me to his swearing-in. Due to Parliament being in session I will not be able to make it. It is ironic I was not invited to Charanjit Singh Channi's swearing-in though he was one of my MLA's," Tewari said in a tweet. Tewari also shared the invitation card on the microblogging site.
The Lok Sabha MP from Punjab's Anandpur Sahib claimed that he was not invited for Charanjit Singh Channi 's swearing-in ceremony on September 20 last year.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a landslide victory in the Punjab polls with 92 seats, pushing most of its rivals to the margins. Congress had won 18 seats in the 117-member Assembly.
In what can be seen as an apparent rift in the Punjab Congress, Manish Tewari was not on the list of party's star campaigners for the Assembly elections. Bhagwant Mann is all set to be sworn in state's Chief Minister at Khatkar Kalan, Bhagat Singh's ancestral village, in the presence of the party convenor Arvind Kejriwal and all its MLAs while the outgoing CM Charanjit Singh Channi hasn't been invited.
Also, no Union Minister or any big leader of the national level has been invited for the oath-taking ceremony, which will be attended only by AAP leaders and party's Punjab leaders, added the AAP sources.
Further, the family members and those who are close to the Chief Minister-designate have been invited to the oath-taking ceremony, besides several artists from Punjab.
(With ANI Inputs)
