State police will be given free hand, effective drug force formed, promises AAP's Bhagwant Mann

The state police will be given a free hand and an effective drug force sans political interference will be set up if the AAP is voted to power in the state, promised Bhagwant Mann, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) chief ministerial candidate in the Punjab Assembly elections.

On Wednesday, the actor/satirist turned politician Mann also said assured the voters of the state that AAP had also drawn out a roadmap for internal security of the border state. Adding that due to infighting in the Congress they are not looking into this issue at all.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal named Maan, the Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur constituency as the party’s chief ministerial face last week. His selection had been made on the basis of a survey conducted under the campaign ‘Janta Chunegi Apna CM’ run by AAP. People were asked to submit their preference via a phone number and according to Kejriwal, the party received over 21.59 lakh responses between January 13 and 17. And, 93.3 per cent of the people of Punjab had given Mann’s name.

Also read: Bhagwant Mann is AAP’s chief ministerial face for Punjab polls

Mann will contest the Punjab assembly election, to be held on February 20, from the Dhuri Assembly constituency. The state will witness a single-phased polling unlike UP’s seven phased election. The counting for the five states which go to the polls will be held on March 10.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress had emerged as the frontrunner and had formed the government in Punjab with Amarinder Singh as the CM. Singh however quit the Congress last year after an ugly public spat with party’s Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and has formed his own party.

The AAP had won 20 seats in the 117-member Assembly in their debut election in Punjab finishing second after the Congress. Last time, the AAP did not have a CM candidate and Mann was appointed AAP’s state president after the 2017 election.