Bhagwant Mann meets party leaders in Jalandhar, gathers ground-level feedback

Chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday held a fresh series of meetings with Aam Aadmi Party (AAAP) in the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency to gather feedback and gauge the on-ground sentiment in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
He had on Tuesday held a closed-door meeting with sitting party MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, who will contest from Jalandhar again.
Mann, who on Wednesday left for Bathinda after camping in Jalandhar for two days, held one-on-one discussions with key AAP leaders from the constituency to gather feedback before strategising the campaign.
He also held a two-hour meeting with cabinet minister Balkar Singh before meeting Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal among other leaders.
AAP leaders, however, remained tight-lipped over the details of the meetings. A party leader said Mann has been holding meetings to gather ground-level feedback about the candidates and party’s prospects in coming elections.
“The CM is going to tour all 13 constituencies including those eight segments from where the party has announced the candidates and will hold such close door meetings,” the leader said.
All’s well in party’s rank and file
Notably, speculations were rife of Rinku joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) due to his absence from the constituency even after he announced AAP’s candidate from Jalandhar. According to the information, Rinku is said to have sought financial assistance from the party to kick off campaigning for the polls.
Rinku, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2022 state assembly elections before winning the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election in May 2023, however, maintained that he had no issues with the party.
A high-stakes electoral battle is brewing for AAP in Jalandhar as it would fight tooth-and-nail to retain the seat that it won with a thumping majority in a by-election last year.
Looking ahead, a party leader said, “The Jalandhar by-poll was completely different as the whole government machinery from top to bottom remained stationed in Jalandhar for weeks. There was no dearth in flow of funds and muscle power then, but Rinku has to own the responsibility of building his campaign and manage other poll affairs this time around.”
Rinku after meeting the CM said the meeting ended on a positive note as poll preparation was discussed in detail.
The 2023 by-election had seen AAP breach the Congress citadel. Rinku won in landslide polled 3,02,279 votes, 58,691 more than his nearest rival, Congress’ Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.
SAD-BSP candidate Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi polled 1,58,445, while BJP’s Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal had gotten 1,34,800 votes.
MP Rinku’s call for alliance with
Congress catches AAP unawares
Jalandhar Even as the Aam Aadmi Party’s senior leadership in the state, including CM Bhagwant Mann rejected the alliance with the Congress, the party’s lone Lok Sabha MP from the state Sushil Kumar Rinku batted for an alliance.
Notably, Rinku has spent most of his political career with the Congress
In an interview to a TV channel, Rinku said a Congress-AAP alliance would be beneficial for both. “If an alliance between both the parties could happen in other parts of the country, why could it not materialise in Punjab? It is not a local election, but a country’s election aiming to save democracy,” he said.
He batted for both parties to leave aside personal interests for the country’s sake.
Despite repeated attempts, Rinku remained unavailable for comments. Local bodies minister Balkar Singh, meanwhile, categorically refused to comment on Rinku’s statement.