CHANDIGARH: Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will not lead the Aam Aadmi Party election campaign in Jalandhar.
Though he will be the face of the campaign for candidate Mahinder Bhagat, 23 senior leaders, including two MPs, four ministers and MLAs, are the part of the campaign.
The ruling party has decided that the campaign will be run under the overall supervision of general secretary, organisation, and Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak. Mann will canvass only during the last leg of the campaign.
This decision may be strategic, considering that the result of the byelection will be considered a referendum on the performance of the government, within just a month of the ruling party losing on 10 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats. The electoral performace in this bypoll is bound to have an impact on the political fortunes of the one leading the campaign. Thus, it may be strategically wise to keep the CM away as the leader of the campaign.
Defending its Jalandhar West seat is becoming a matter of prestige for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, during the bypoll scheduled for July 10. The election has been necessitated by the resignation of former AAP MLA Sheetal Angural, who resigned from the party and joined the BJP. The party will be putting all its might to win back the seat.
The 23 leaders, including MPs, ministers and MLAs, have been made in-charge of 23 wards that fall in Jalandhar West. The ministers chosen to lead the campaign are Kuldeep Dhaliwal, Laljit Singh Bhullar, Dr Baljit Kaur and Lal Chand Kataruchak, while newly elected MPs Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and Malvinder Kang have also been chosen.
Sources say that each chairman of the board or corporation has been assigned the task of campaigning in each of the 181 booths. All these people have been asked to camp in Jalandhar from June 22 till the last day of the campaign on July 8.