Chandigarh: After seven years of heading the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Friday, was replaced by cabinet minister Aman Arora as AAP Punjab president.

Aman Arora, a two-time MLA from Sunam, is Punjab’s new and renewable energy minister. He served as the co-convener of the party from 2017 to 2019. In 2019, the party made him the Punjab in-charge of the parliamentary polls.

Kalsi is the party MLA from Batala.

Mann announced his willingness to step down as party chief during an election rally last month. He said he wanted to devote his time to his duties as chief minister.

However, well-placed sources in the party said this is yet another move to clip the chief minister’s wings by the Delhi high command, who made such intentions clear to the CM nearly two months ago.

The sources said the party was waiting for an opportune moment to announce the decision, and it finally came one day after the four assembly bypolls in the state.

Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, the sources said, is displeased over the growing unpopularity of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab. The party registered a historic win in the 2022 assembly elections, winning 92 of the 117 seats. In the 2024 parliamentary elections, however, the AAP could win only three of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state, and the Congress won seven. The party’s vote share reduced from 42% in the assembly elections to 26.2% in the parliamentary elections.

Sources said that apart from putting Bhagwant Mann in his place, the Delhi high command also intended to counter the growing influence of the BJP in Punjab, especially among Hindu voters. Aman Arora is a well-known Hindu face in Punjab politics. Giving him a position of authority in the party is expected to broaden AAP’s current base beyond Jatt Sikhs and the Dalit vote bank. Hindus, a constituency the BJP is wooing, constitute nearly 38% of the population in Punjab.

Although the BJP could not win any seat in the 2024 parliamentary elections, which it fought solo, without an alliance with its traditional partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the BJP’s vote base increased from 6% in the 2022 assembly elections to over 18%.

Arora is expected to reorganise the party and strengthen its volunteer and cadre bases in Punjab. Arora, who is said to be close to the Delhi high command, is expected to work independently of the chief minister and hold the position till the next parliamentary elections in Punjab in 2027.

Aman Arora belongs to a prominent business and political family in Sunam. His father, Bhagwan Das Arora, had a flourishing transport business and was a well-known trade unionist. Bhagwan Das Arora was with the Congress and elected twice as an MLA from Sunam on a Congress ticket in 1992 and 1997. He also was a Congress minister in the ministry of former CM Harcharan Singh Brar.

Aman Arora, who entered politics early in life, initially joined the Congress following his father’s footsteps and contested from Sunam twice, in 2007 and 2012. In 2016, he shifted to the AAP, influenced by Kejriwal’s political philosophy.

‘Interest in finances’ but not made FM

When Bhagwant Mann was first announced as the AAP Punjab chief in May 2017 after the party’s defeat in the 2017 assembly elections, Aman Arora was named the party’s co-convener. Aman contested the 2017 assembly election from Sunam and won the seat with a record margin of over 30,000 votes.

Both Mann and Arora resigned from their respective positions in March 2018 in protest against Kejriwal’s apology to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia in connection with a defamation case. Majithia filed the case against Kejriwal for levelling allegations of involvement in the drugs’ trade against him.

Bhagwant Mann was appointed the AAP Punjab convener again in January 2019, a few months later before the parliamentary polls, while Arora was made the campaign in charge of the party.

After taking over as Punjab CM in March 2022, Mann continued to hold the position of the party president, following the example set by Kejriwal, who simultaneously acted as the CM of Delhi and AAP president till his resignation this year. ‘Principal’ Budh Ram was elected the working president with Mann, but that experiment did not work out.

Aman Arora attended General Gurnam Singh Public School in Sangrur and graduated from Chandigarh’s Panjab University. He is considered a balanced and mature leader of the party—who is also approachable. Over the years, sources said, he has carved a niche by acquiring more and more knowledge of Punjab’s finances.

However, when the AAP government came to power in 2022, Arora was not made the finance minister. Instead, Dalit leader Harpal Cheema became the finance minister.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)

Also Read: Damdami Taksal backs BJP-led Mahayuti, Akalis say ‘shocking’ from keeper of Bhindranwale’s legacy