BHAGWANT IS PUNJAB’S ‘MANN OF THE MATCH’
When the Congress high command had made cricketerturned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu chief of the Punjab party, this writer on 24 July 2021 had said, “Time Will Tell Who Will ‘Thoko Taali’in Punjab.” This has turned out to be true in just declared results of the Punjab Assembly polls. It’s Aam Admi Party (AAP)’S Chief Minister face Bhagwant Singh Mann and his mentor, Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM, who are the ones now doing the honour of “Thoko Taali”. Sherry, as Sidhu is popularly known since his cricket days, had come to be known by his often utterance “Thoko Taali” at his Amritsar friend Kapil Sharma’s TV comedy show which features Bollywood actors and comedians. Instead of Sidhu, it’s now Bhagwant Mann, who is also a man from the stage, is “Thoko Taali”, to Sherry’s discomfort. It’s unbelievable as the 48-year-old comedian-turned-politician “Jugnu”– the stage name of Bhagwant–has turned out to be the “Mann of the Match” in the five states assembly “election tournament”. There were not many to bet on Bhagwant Mann, two-time AAP Lok Sabha member from Sangrur, to capture the border state of Punjab by storm. The
AAP tsunami was so forceful that sitting Congress CM Charanjit Singh Channi faced a humiliating defeat in both the Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur seats he contested from.
When Channi replaced his party CM Captain Amarinder Singh recently, everyone had praised the Congress for its “master stroke” by picking up a Dalit CM for the first time. But this has obviously not worked despite Punjab having about 33% Dalits. It is a sad commentary on the state-ofaffairs in the Congress. A major factor seems to be the unnecessary continuous bickering by Sidhu, first against CM Captain Amarinder Singh and later against CM Channi. No party had won more than 90 seats in Punjab since 1962, thus, this is a historic victory for the AAP. Asked what was the secret of AAP’S fantastic win, Bhagwant Mann, with a wide smile, told The Sunday Guardian: “When you sweep with a vacuum cleaner holding a jhadu (AAP’S election symbol) in the hand, this is bound to happen … we have cleaned Punjab’s ‘political dirt’ thoroughly.”