Bhagwant Mann Ridicules Sidhu For Questioning AAP's Survey

AAP leader Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday ridiculed Navjot Singh Sidhu for questioning the survey for selecting the CM face and asked him not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Aam Aadmi Party. Mann, who is the AAP's chief ministerial face for the next month's Punjab assembly polls, asked Sidhu to get a survey done from his party for choosing the CM candidate. The Sangrur MP also targeted former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for his statement claiming that he had got a message from Pakistan to reinstate Sidhu in his government because he was an old friend of their prime minister.

Addressing the media here, Mann said Sidhu is now questioning the AAP's survey 'Janta Chunegi Apna CM.' Sidhu on Monday had dubbed AAP's survey a "scam" and "a deceptive scheme" and had said his party had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against it. Ridiculing Sidhu, Mann asked the former cricketer to get his survey done from the Congress party for selecting the chief ministerial face. He also took a jibe at the survey by Nikhil Alva, an aide of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said in this survey on Twitter, only 1,200 votes were polled.

Notably, a survey over Twitter by Nikhil Alva on "Who should be the CM face of the Congress in Punjab?" has revealed that Channi is the choice with a maximum of 68.7 per cent of the total 1,283 voters in the survey responding in his favour. Mann said his party involved people for the first time in its survey for selecting the CM face and lakhs of people gave their responses. Mann asked Sidhu not to interfere in the internal affairs of his party.

The AAP had announced its Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann as its CM face last week following the results of a survey in which people were asked to call on a phone number to give their preference. Kejriwal had claimed that they had received over 21.59 lakh responses from January 13 to 17 under the "Janta Chunegi Apna CM '' campaign and 93.3 per cent people had given Bhagwant Mann's name. The Congress leader had said this many calls cannot be received on a private number over a few days.

"If we try to fit this data into mathematical calculations, then it does not make sense at all. Usually, such calls take at least 15 seconds, then only 5,760 calls can be attended in one day and that shall add up to 23,040 calls in four days," Sidhu had said. Taking on the former CM Amarinder Singh, Mann asked him why he did not speak earlier that he had got a message from Pakistan to reinstate Sidhu in his government because he was an old friend of their prime minister. “Why did he hide this fact for such a long time?” he asked.

Bhagwant Mann also condemned the sacrilege bid at the Patiala temple on Monday. He said those who are behind such incidents should be given strict punishment. He said had strict action been taken in the 2015 sacrilege incidents, nobody would have dared to carry out such acts again. A man was arrested for an alleged sacrilege bid at the historic Kali Devi temple in Patiala on Monday.

With PTI inputs.