NRIs CAUTION KEJRI AGAINST MANN

AAP’s 26 ‘prominent overseas faces’ write to the national convener, say Sangrur MP’s elevation as state chief will be regressive move with irreparable consequences

In a huge embarrassment to the Aam Aadmi Party’s Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, who has been claiming to be popular among non-resident Indians (NRIs), 26 “prominent overseas faces” of the party have written to its national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal against appointing Mann the Punjab convener.

The letter sent by party volunteers from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand goes on to warn that Mann’s elevation “will be the most regressive and damaging move by the party and will have irreparable consequences”.

The letter comes ahead of the meeting of party MLAs called by Kejriwal in New Delhi on Monday to discuss the restructuring of the state unit after its loss in the Punjab elections.

The group of volunteers, who had earlier written to Kejriwal in March and called for immediate removal of the party’s then Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh and organisational secretary Durgesh Pathak, has said that people overwhelmingly rejected Mann, who was a star campaigner in the assembly polls, and see him as a liability.

‘A NARCISSIST, COST ELECTIONS’

“Bhagwant is a narcissist and is less focused on the well-being of his constituency... is in a non-stop campaigning mode for himself and has campaigned consistently against leaders (of the party’s Punjab unit) like HS Phoolka. Also, his greed to be the Punjab CM was obvious... which cost us the Punjab elections,” they said.

Accusing the Sangrur MP of carving out his own NRI team, they said: “His NRI team continuously attacked hard-working ground volunteers with names like ‘sold’ and ‘traitors’. We have been (working for) the AAP day and night, and (it makes no sense) to make a convener who thinks about himself before Punjab and the volunteers.” The group also attacked Mann for his “drinking habit” and said the “entire world” has seen his videos.

Prominent among those who have spoken against the MP are AAP’s outreach convener in the US Satbeer Singh Brar; coordinators, Punjab relations, US, Amritpal S Dhillon and Manjinder Sandhu; Canadian conveners Surinder Mavi (Toronto), Avtar Sidhu (Calgary) and Gurpartap Singh Kalls (Saskatoon) and German convener Davinder Ghaloti.