Will rent house in Jalandhar for bypoll campaign, says Mann; AAP releases 10-point manifesto

Chandigarh, Jun 22 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said Saturday he will rent a house in Jalandhar for the AAP's bypoll campaign and the party will contest the election to the Jalandhar West assembly seat on the work done by his government.

He also said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to contest the bypoll under his leadership. Mann was addressing a state-level function to mark the birth anniversary of Sant Kabir Das in Hoshiarpur.

The by-election to the Jalandhar West assembly constituency, scheduled for July 10, was necessitated due to the resignation of sitting MLA Sheetal Angural, who switched over to the BJP from AAP in March. His resignation was accepted by the Speaker on May 30.

Mann said he would lead the poll campaign and ensure a thumping victory for the AAP candidate from the seat Mohinder Bhagat. "I will tell people what work has been done and what is left, and ask people to give us more strength for the development of this area," he said.

"I will rent a house in Jalandhar. It is not that this house will be rented only up to July 10 when the bypoll result will be declared. This house will later become the office for the Majha and Doaba regions for two or three days every week. I will stay there," the chief minister said.

Mann said he and officials will be present there for effective and immediate redressal of public grievances.

AAP launched its poll campaign in Jalandhar on Saturday and released a manifesto of 10 promises, including ending drug and lottery mafia, providing clean drinking water, new sewerage treatment projects, street lights, specialist doctors and free medicines in every mohalla clinic and CCTV cameras in JP Nagar, Model House and Harbans Nagar.

Addressing the media in Jalandhar, Punjab Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and AAP MP from Sri Anandpur Sahib Malvinder Singh Kang said the party always contests elections based on its works.

"We will also contest this election on the basis of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's public welfare works," Kang said.

This by-election is a fight between "corrupt and fraudsters" and "honest and capable people", he added.

"We are confident that the public will teach a lesson to the betrayer in this election," Kang said, apparently referring to Angural.

AAP won the Jalandhar West seat in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls with Angural as its candidate. However, he quit the party in March and joined the BJP. The saffron party has now fielded him from the seat for the bypoll.

Kang said AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat is an educated person and his family has been serving the people of Jalandhar for two generations.

Mohinder Bhagat's father Chunni Lal Bhagat did a lot of good work for the development of Jalandhar and Punjab as a minister, he added.

Aam Aadmi Party faced a drubbing in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, in which it won only three of the 13 parliamentary constituencies in Punjab.

Twenty-three candidates have filed their nomination papers for the July 10 bypoll. The last day for filing nomination papers was June 21. PTI CHS IJT IJT