Stand-Up Comedian To Punjab's Next Chief Minister: A Look At AAP Leader Bhagwant Mann's Journey

Bhagwant Mann: Bhagwant Mann’s career in comedy was at its peak when he quit and took the political plunge. In 2011, he joined Manpreet Badal’s People’s Party of Punjab

AAP leader Bhagwant Mann with his mother on Thursday (PTI)

New Delhi: With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) all set to form the next government in Punjab courtesy its splendid show in the assembly polls, comedian-turned politician Bhagwant Mann is all set to take charge of the top post in the state.

Mann, 48, is a sitting Member of Parliament from Punjab. He won from the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 and 2019. He was chosen as the AAP’s chief ministerial canmdidate earlier on January 18 this year and won the Punjab polls from Dhuri seat.

Mann’s career in comedy was at its peak when he quit and took the political plunge. In 2011, he joined Manpreet Badal’s People’s Party of Punjab. 

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The People’s Party of Punjab was an experiment in clean politics in 2011 by Manpreet Badal, a nephew of Akali patriarch and five-time Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

In 2012, Mann fought his first election from Lehragagga assembly seat against former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal but lost. 

Manpreet Badal merged his party with the Congress before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but Mann refused to go along.

In 2014, Mann fought on the AAP ticket from the Sangrur Lok Sabha sear and won by a record margin of over two lakh votes defeating veteran Akali leader S.S. Dhindsa.

Allegations Of 'Drinking'

In  2015, former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said that Maan attended the Parliament session drunk. “I discovered it first in July 2014, when AAP had a meeting of all its Lok Sabha candidates. Mann was sitting next to me and was smelling of alcohol,” said Yogendra Yadav.

“I mentioned it to Arvind Kejriwal and he nodded. Around this time, I heard rumours that Mann was going to the Lok Sabha sessions drunk. One of his fellow MPs confirmed it to me,”  he then added.

Less than a year later, former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had said  the “representatives like Bhagwant Mann are maligning the image of Punjab”.

In November 2016, Mann allegedly turned up at the funeral of Manmeet Alisher, who was burnt alive in Australia, in an inebriated state. 

Reports claim that the family asked Mann to leave the premises since he kept misbehaving with them and the journalists present at the venue.

In October 2015, Mann was asked to leave the stage at the bhog ceremony of the Faridkot firing victims in Amritsar after former granthi of Dabar Sahib Jagtar Singh allegedly found him drunk.

“We are struggling with the case of disrespect to the Guru Granth Sahib and how can a man come drunk on the stage where Guru Granth Sahib Parkash had been done,” said Jagtar Singh.

PM Modi's Dig At Mann In Parliament

Prime Minister Modi took a dig at Mann in February 2017. Referring to an old Charvaka poem in a Parliament session, he said that instead of asking the  people to drink “ghee (clarified butter)” Mann would “ask them to drink something else”.

Maan expressed his ire at the jibe and said that the Prime Minister “lowered the dignity of the House”. 

He even threatened to report against the Prime Minister for breach of privilege if the jibe wasn’t deleted from the record.
Mann fought the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections against then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal from Jalalabad but lost with 18,500 votes.

He was appointed the AAP’s state president on May 8, 2017. He later quit as the party’s state chief.

Maan was the most visible face of the AAP during the 2017 assembly polls addressing over 300 rallies during the campaign and making an anthem out of Punjabi ditty ‘kikli-kaleer’, turning it into a damning satire on the Badal family.

Later, when Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal apologised to Akali leader Bikram S. Majithia in a defamation case for accusing him of drug trade in March 2018, Mann who had routinely lampooned Majithia quit as the state chief in protest.

Got Moniker Of ‘Pegwant’ Mann

He gained a degree of notoriety in the Parliament when some fellow MPs complained that he came to the House in an inebriated condition, earning him the moniker of “Pegwant” Mann. 

Earlier too, there was muffled outrage when he fell at a rally in Bathinda in January 2017, after blowing fuzzy kisses to the audience.

Mann later in 2019 took oath that he will no longer touch liquor. The AAP too claimed that he had turned a new leaf, with Kejriwal publicly declaring that Mann had sworn off liquor.

Early Life And Childhood

Mann was born into the family of a school teacher at Satoj village in Sangrur on October 17, 1973. He released his maiden audio cassette while in B.Com 1st year at Shaheed Udham Singh Government College, Sunam (Sangrur), at the age of 18.

Mann, a master of social and political satire, was soon the undisputed king of comedy in Punjab with long-running television shows such as ‘Jugnu Mast Mast’.

Some of the notable comic characters played by Maan include  Jugnoo, Jhandaa Singh, Bibo Buhaa and Pappu Paas. His comedy TV shows include ‘Jugnu Mast-Mast’ and ‘No Life With Wife’.

In 2008, Mann competed in the Great Indian Laughter Challenge on Star Plus which increased his audience. He also acted in National Award winning film “Main Maa Punjab Dee” directed by Balwant Dullat.