Ahead of Jalandhar West Assembly bypoll, Bhagwant Mann may shift to rented abode near Jalandhar Cantt

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 13

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is expected to be in Jalandhar this weekend to review the situation for the Jalandhar West (Reserved) Assembly bypoll and he is likely to be here with his bag and baggage.

AAP plans door-to-door visits

• Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has asked party workers to gear up for multiple door-to-door visits in localities to win the Jalandhar West bypoll
• AAP had received a huge drubbing in the poll for the Jalandhar LS seat, where it ended on the third position

Papers to be filed from today

• Filing of papers for Jalandhar West bypoll: June 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 (11 am to 3 pm)
• Scrutiny of papers: June 24
• Last date for withdrawal: June 26
• Polling date: July 10 (from 7 am to 6 pm)
• Counting: July 13

At a recent meeting with Jalandhar leaders and workers in Chandigarh, he had reportedly told them that he would be shifting to his new rented house at Deep Nagar near Jalandhar Cantonment with his family. Mann is learnt to have told them that he, his wife Gurpreet Kaur and sister Manpreet Kaur would be accompanying him to Jalandhar and would stay put with him there.

He told them that it would not be his new abode for just a month till the bypoll but till the 2027 the Assembly elections. “I shall be available at this address for at least three days a week. This shall help me stay in close touch with AAP workers in the Doaba and Majha regions. From this location, I shall also be able to hold the “Sarkar Aap Ke Dwar” programme on a regular basis for the masses,” he told them. In his previous tours, including for the Jalandhar LS bypoll last year, Mann and his team used to stay in hotels.

As far as the bypoll is concerned, he has asked workers to gear up for multiple door-to-door visits in localities to win the Jalandhar West seat. The party had received a huge drubbing in the poll for the Jalandhar LS seat, where it ended on the third position. From the Jalandhar West segment, the party trailed behind the Congress and the BJP by about 28,000 votes. The Chief Minister told the workers that micro-management strategies would have to be worked upon to win the seat.

The party is in the process of finalising its candidate. Among the contenders are Mohinder Bhagat, halqa in-charge and son of former BJP minister Bhagat Chunni Lal, district convener Steven Kler and district planning committee chairman Amritpal Singh. There also is a buzz that the party may also import a Dalit BJP leader as its nominee.

The Congress camp too has upped its activities in Jalandhar in view of the bypoll. The nomination process for the bypoll is set to start tomorrow. Leader of the Opposition Partap Bajwa and party strategist Capt Sandeep Sandhu were at MP-elect Charanjit Singh Channi’s place last evening where they held a meeting with party workers of the area. Channi introduced them to 16 applicants from whom the party had received claims, mostly its councillors. The party is expected to take its decision in another five days.