CHANDIGARH: With Delhi assembly elections expected within four months, the Aam Aadmi Party wants to clean up its act in Punjab and present it as a model of good governance. That perhaps is why it is purging Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s trusted core in a hurry.
The buzz in the corridors of power is that AAP heavyweight Bibhav Kumar, who was party convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s trusted lieutenant, could be planted in the Punjab Chief Minister’s Office as Mann’s chief advisor.
There were also claims that the terms of appointment of a chief advisor were cleared by the Punjab cabinet, which met on Tuesday.
If Bibhav indeed becomes the chief advisor, he could be calling the shots, given his proximity to Kejriwal. For the record, the official spokesperson of the Punjab government dismissed all talk of Bibhav’s appointment in the Punjab CMO as false and social media gossip.
Bibhav is out on bail in the Swati Maliwal assault case.
The development came as two more close aides of Mann — Director, Media Relations (Overseas), Baltej Pannu and Director, Social Media, Manpreet Kaur were shown the door. A former journalist, Pannu was hired by the Punjab State Media Society and he had joined the CMO in July 2022. As for Kaur, she had joined just one-and-a-half months ago.
Two other aides of Mann — Director, Communications, Navneet Wadhwa and Onkar Singh, Officer on Special Duty to the CM — had put in their papers earlier. In all, the axe has fallen on four of Mann’s trusted soldiers.
In a related development, the state government on Wednesday appointed K A P Sinha as the new Chief Secretary. A 1992 batch IAS officer, he replaced Anurag Verma. Last week, Verma was called to Delhi for a meeting with the AAP top brass. Sinha is the fourth chief secretary of the state ever since the AAP wrested power in Punjab two-and-a-half years ago.