Bhagwant Mann will be Aam Aadmi Party’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Tuesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party candidate was picked through a televoting system set up by the party a week ago. Out of nearly 21,00,000 votes, more than 93% voted for Bhagwant Mann. The initiative was called ‘Janta Chunegi Apna CM‘.

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Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal further announced that some people voted for him, however, the votes were rendered invalid as he was not in the race. The remaining votes were in favour of Navjot Singh Sidhu, President Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.

“It is clear that AAP will win the Punjab election. In a way, the person chosen as the Chief Ministerial candidate will be the next Chief Minister of Punjab,” Kejriwal said before announcing the candidate on Tuesday in Mohali.

A day before the announcement, the Election Commission of India rescheduled Punjab’s assembly elections to February 20, 2022. The polls were earlier set for February 14 but were moved further in light of Guru Ravidas Jayanti. The counting of votes and the results are scheduled for March 10.

Bhagwant Mann, 48, was a Punjabi comedian and actor before becoming a politician nearly a decade ago. Now a prominent face of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, Mann was included in the party before the 2014 elections.

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Meanwhile, Mann’s top contenders in the upcoming assembly elections from the Congress party —  Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Punjab Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu– have already announced their plans.

Channi will contest the elections from the Chamkaur Sahib constituency while Sidhu picked the Amritsar East constituency. Deputy Chief Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Om Prakash Soni have been fielded from Dera Baba Nanak and Amritsar Central respectively.