Bhagwant Mann shows support for newly-elected Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, May 18

Giving out a message loud and clear to the officials and leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Jalandhar that the newly-elected MP Sushil Rinku was their boss, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had in his Jalandhar event yesterday ensured that he sat next to him.

As Mann announced doles of nearly Rs 100 crore for improving civic amenities in Jalandhar, the only AAP leader present with him was Rinku. Mann even specified that though the larger guidelines for the use of funds for civic amenities would be spelt out shortly, all funds would be used as per the proposals reaching the new MP. This clearly meant that Rinku, who has been a councillor and MLA and knows the city profile well, had been authorised to use the funds as per his discretion and wisdom.

This also clearly indicated that the forthcoming Jalandhar Municipal Corporation elections would be fought under his supervision and that he would have a final say in most local level decision-making. By making Rinku big, the CM has also indirectly decimated the stature of local MLAs, especially Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural. Angural is learnt to have completely skipped yesterday’s AAP event of ‘Sarkar tuhade dwaar’ as he was not even present at Cabbana Resort.

Four MPs from Jalandhar

Mann had repeatedly said yesterday, “We have made Jalandhar exceptionally powerful. We have four MPs from one area. Other than Rinku, we already have environmentalist Balbir S Seechewal, LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal and cricketer Harbhajan Singh as MPs from here. No such precedent prevailed in Jalandhar in previous years.”

Punjab team has outdone Delhi, says CM

Perhaps trying to assert more power since the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll win, Mann had yesterday also mentioned at his Cabbana Resort speech, “Among all the teams of AAP across the country, Punjab team is the best. Earlier it was Delhi, since it was in the national capital that AAP started to grow. But now, I have been telling AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal that we can organise a contest of all teams and I am sure that the Punjab team will outdo the rest in terms of roadshows, publicity and carrying out the message of the government to the masses.”

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