Punjab Bypolls 2024: Bhagwant Mann 'Confident' Of AAP Sweep In Dera Baba Nanak Seat

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday exuded confidence that AAP would win the November 13 bypoll in the Dera Baba Nanak assembly segment.

Addressing a public meeting at Kalanaur in support of AAP candidate Gurdeep Singh Randhawa, the chief minister said, "The 'jhadoo' (AAP's election symbol) will sweep Dera Baba Nanak this time."

"Press the button (AAP's symbol), do not look at other buttons," he told the crowd.

Bypolls to four assembly seats -- Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala -- will be held on November 13 and the results declared on November 23.

The bypolls were necessitated after the MLAs representing these seats were elected to the Lok Sabha.

AAP has fielded Gurdeep Singh Randhawa from Dera Baba Nanak, where he is pitted against the Congress' Jatinder Kaur and BJP candidate Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.

The Dera Baba Nanak seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was elected to the Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa won the assembly elections from the seat in 2002, 2012, 2017 and 2022.

During his address, Mann also took a dig at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for not contesting the bypolls.

"They (SAD) are not contesting. They could not find four contestants," he said without naming the party.

The chief minister highlighted that his government was not only fulfilling various "guarantees" but also doing work that was not promised.

"We fulfilled the guarantee of free electricity (300 units per month). Ninety per cent of households are getting zero electricity bills. This scheme will not stop," he said.

"More than 45,000 government jobs have been given without any money or 'sifarish'," he claimed.

Attacking previous dispensations, he alleged government jobs were not given without money.

He also trained his gun on Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa, the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly.

When Bajwa was a minister in the previous Congress government, several toll plazas were set up on the Chandigarh-Gurdaspur stretch, Mann said and added his dispensation shut 16 toll plazas that resulted in Rs 62 lakh in people's savings per day.

He also accused the previous governments of looting the people of Punjab while urging the public to elect good persons as their representatives.