Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann predicts 2 decades of AAP rule, slams opposition

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday predicted that he would continue to lead the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the next 2 decades at the helm in the state, dismissing the opposition Congress's repeated claims that he (Mann) would not last as CM ever since it stormed to power in the State in March 2022.

Concluding the discussion on the state budget, passed with a voice vote in the absence of Congress, Mann also lashed out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which he said was "daydreaming about forming the govt in Punjab". Mann also lashed out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), holding it responsible for damaging Punjab's generations and pushing youth into "the quagmire of drugs and the path of gangsterism, which ruined entire generations".

Among opposition MLAs, only rebel Akali MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali was present.

Mann said the opposition abandoned the budget debate because it could not defend its opposition to giving Rs 1,000 to women.

Attacking leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and other Congress leaders, Mann said after AAP formed govt in 2022, "they started saying that Bhagwant Mann would not last a year". "Well, a year passed. Then they said 40 AAP MLAs were in their contact. Then they started saying that he (Mann) wouldn't be allowed to complete the second year. Well, the second year also passed. When I went to the hospital for a routine check-up, they started saying, ‘That's it, he won't come back now; someone else will be made the leader.' They kept making all kinds of stories and rumours."

In a statement where he projected himself to be at the helm for the next 20 years, Mann added, "Now the fourth year is almost complete, and by God's grace the fifth year will start on March 16. Now they have started saying that he (Mann) won't come back in 2027. They will say the same thing in 2032, the same in 2037, the same in 2042, and even in 2047. We will show them around. This has happened because of the people. The people are great. I personally do not have pride or arrogance—this work was done by the people."

Taking a dig at Badal, Mann said while the SAD chief was promising to make Jagraon and Khanna districts, he should rather focus on protecting his bastion of Lambi.

Mann also took pot shots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and cricketer-turned-politician and former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, saying both were saying they would work only if they first became Prime Minister and Chief Minister, respectively. Mann added that people, on the contrary, were telling them that "first show your work, then we will make you PM or CM."

Mann said Sidhu could have taken over as power minister, as asked by then chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, and implemented the free power facility if he had any intention of public welfare. Mann said Sidhu would be in a "win-win situation" politically even if Captain refused the proposal of free electricity.