Punjab CM-designate Bhagwant Mann meets Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, invites him to oath ceremony

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 11

Bhagwant Mann will take oath as the Chief Minister of Punjab on March 16 at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of iconic freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, party sources said on Friday after he met the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.

On March 13, the party will take out a roadshow in Amritsar. Both the events will be attended by Kejriwal, the sources said.

A day after the Aam Aadmi Party’s stupendous victory, Punjab CM-designate Mann met Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal at his residence on Friday and extended an invitation to him to attend both the events, the sources said.

The over-an-hour-long meeting was also attended by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP in-charge of political affairs in Punjab Raghav Chadha.

Mann later left for Punjab.

“My younger brother Bhagwant Mann will take oath as the chief minister of Punjab. Today he came to my house to extend invitation for the oath-taking ceremony. I am sure that as a chief minister, Bhagwant will fulfil every expectation of the people of Punjab,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi. He also shared a picture of the meeting.

मेरा छोटा भाई भगवंत मान पंजाब के मुख्यमंत्री पद की शपथ लेगा। आज वे शपथ ग्रहण का न्यौता देने मेरे घर आए। मुझे पूरा भरोसा है कि भगवंत एक मुख्यमंत्री के तौर पर पंजाब के लोगों की हर उम्मीद को पूरा करेंगे। pic.twitter.com/u2JoH1ZKtH

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 11, 2022

This was Mann’s first meeting with Kejriwal after the Assembly election results were declared on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Mann, accompanied by Punjab in-charge of the party Raghav Chadha, got delayed for the meeting with Kejriwal due to a huge traffic jam along the route.

The AAP CM candidate preferred the road rather than air route to Delhi and lost two hours in the jam.

Mann and Kejriwal were expected to discuss the details of government formation in the state, including the names of ministers to be sworn in, the bureaucratic structure with an eye on the party’s principal election promises and the road ahead.

The meeting was the first since AAP’s historic victory in Punjab which had elected the first non-Congress and non-Akali Dal government in the state, a first in the state’s history.

The oath-taking of AAP government is expected on March 16.

 The Aam Aadmi Party romped home in 92 of the 117 Assembly seats. Mann won from the Dhuri seat by a huge margin of 58,206 votes. —with PTI inputs