On Saturday, Joginder Singh Mann, a former Congress minister and the chairman of the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
He joined the party in the presence of the party’s Punjab affairs co-incharge Raghav Chadha. Mann was admitted into the party by AAP national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Mr Mann’s entrance, according to AAP leader and Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha, will provide the party a major boost in the state’s election. Joginder Singh Mann ended the 50-year relationship with Congress as he was inspired from the core vision of Arvind Kejriwal.
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“I remained a devoted Congress soldier for five decades despite the fact that I lost eight family members to militancy.” Our allegiance is considered as a defect because the party no longer demands our services. But this is not the case since, even without the Congress, we are capable of safeguarding the interests of Phagwara residents in general and disadvantaged groups in particular,” Mann remarked.
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Another reason for his resignation, he added, is that people of Phagwara must drive 40 kilometres to Kapurthala to complete administrative tasks at the district headquarters. He said he had raised the matter of giving Phagwara district status with then-CM Captain Amarinder Singh and then Charanjit Singh Channi several times, but they didn’t care.
Mann went on to say that for the past few years, the Congress has treated the Valmiki or Mazhabi Sikhs as second-class people and used them as a vote bank.
Meanwhile, in Punjab voting will be held for 117 seats that would start from 14 February and the results will be declared on 10 March.
