Bhagwant Mann to contest against Sukhbir Badal: Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Setting up a big election fight in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in Jalalabad on Sunday that the party’s Sangrur MP, Bhagwant Mann, will contest against Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal from the latter’s seat of Jalalabad or from wherever Sukhbir chooses to fight.

Mann in turn dared Badal to “not r u n away f rom Jalalabad” and vowed to chase him and contest against him from any seat in the state.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, advisor to Sukhbir Badal, countered that Kejriwal himself should contest against Badal. “Why is Kejriwal afraid to contest against Sukhbir Badal? Let him come and fight. He should not push a proxy and an intoxicated man into a fight to lose...,” Sirsa told ET.


In an interview to ET on October 11, Mann had first revealed he had told Kejriwal that he would contest from any seat that Sukhbir contests from.

Reacting then, Sukhbir’s brother-inlaw and minister Bikram Majithia had taken a swipe asking if Mann was drunk while making that statement.

“Sukhbir is the symbol of misgovernance and all that is wrong in Punjab. Hence Mann Vs Sukhbir contest will be the marque fight for us,” a senior AAP leader told ET. The sleepy constituency of Jalalabad on India-Pakistan border could become centre of an intense highprofile poll battle.

“I would also dare Captain Amarinder Singh to contest from the same seat from which me and Badal contest,” Mann said. “It is AAP’s tradition to take on the big battles.

Kejriwal had contested against Narendra Modi and Sheila Dikshit,” Mann added. Akali Dal has so far not declared if Badal will contest from Jalalabad, a seat he won by a margin of 50,246 votes in 2012.

Amarinder is expected to fight the polls from Patiala after resigning as Amritsar MP over the SYL Canal issue. But the strategy in AAP does not seem to field their other big faces against Singh, CM Prakash Singh Badal or Bikram Singh Majithia.

“AAP will concentrate on Sukhbir as he is the most hated figure...pitting our strongest face in Mann against him is a big message. We do not want to repeat 2014 Lok Sabha mistake when we took on Modi and Rahul Gandhi together,” an AAP functionary said.

It is speculated that Sukhbir may contest from Dhuri in Sangrur or even two seats. Mann has said he will contest from two seats in that case.

Though AAP has not declared a CM face for Punjab, Mann is seen as one of the front-runners along with HS Phoolka and party’s Punjab convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich if the party comes to power. However, Kejriwal has so far not ruled out himself as well.

Sukhbir on Sunday, meanwhile, claimed AAP will get no more than 6 seats in the polls.