Simranjit Singh Mann: All you need to know about the man who beat AAP and won Sangrur LS seat

NEW DELHI: SAD (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat on Sunday after defeating his nearest rival, AAP's Gurmail Singh, by a margin of 5,822 votes. Mann polled 2,53,154 votes, while Gurmail Singh secured 2,47,332 votes.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) conceded defeat in the seat and congratulated Mann. It is a major setback for the AAP, which had come to power in Punjab registering a landslide win riding on 'badlav' (change).
Who is Simranjit Singh Mann
* Simranjit Singh Mann, 77, is the president of SAD (Amritsar).
* He is a three-time MP; once from Taran Tarn in 1989, Sangrur in 1999 and again from Sangrur in 2022 by election.
* Mann has reportedly been arrested or detained nearly 30 times, including on charges of sedition. But he has never been convicted.
* Born in Shimla in 1945, he comes from a military-political background. His father, Lt. Col. Joginder Singh Mann, was a speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1967.
* He is married to Geetinder Kaur Mann. Mann's wife and Punjab former CM Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur are sisters.
* He joined the Indian Police Service in 1967.
* Mann resigned from his post as Group Commandant of the CISF in Bombay on June 18, 1984, in protest of Operation Blue Star. He was detained shortly after.
* He was elected in absentia to the Lok Sabha by an overwhelming mandate in Punjab, and unconditionally released "in the interests of the State" in November 1989, with all charges dropped.
* In 1990, Mann was denied entry into Parliament when he insisted on taking his Kirpan into the session. He subsequently resigned his seat in protest.
* In 1999, he was again elected to the Lok Sabha. This time he agreed to not take his Kirpan inside the House "out of respect for the other legislators".
* He had fought from Amargarh assembly seat in 2022 but lost to AAP’s candidate.
Pro-Khalistan statements
* His Twitter description reads: "... Striving for #Khalistan(sovereign state for Sikhs)".

* In June 2005, Mann along with five others -- including Khalistan ideologue Jagjit Singh Chohan -- raised pro-Khalistan slogans and made inflammatory speeches during the Kalu Kara Divas at the Akal Takht on the 21st anniversary of Operation Blue Star. He was detained but later released on bail
* Mann also admitted that he had helped Khalistani separatist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his men by distributing arms while he was posted in Faridkot as a senior superintendent of police in the early 1980s.
* In 2016, post the Jat agitation for reservation in Haryana, Mann passed a resolution demanding a separate state of Jat-land by increasing the size of Punjab.
* Mann has urged the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to back the pro-Khalistan resolution of 1946.
* On June 6, 2022, Mann's supporters raised pro-Khalistan slogans at the Golden Temple premises on the 38th anniversary of Operation Blue Star.
* In 2021, while wishing for the new year, he said on Twitter: “May 2021 bring freedom for the Sikh community in form of ‘Khalistan’ that will eradicate social evils such as coercion, discrimination, greed, ego, etc. and restore human values, mutual love, respect, and cooperation.”

* In 2018, while sharing photographs of security forces deployed on the anniversary of Operation Blue Star, he wrote, “This naked show of force by the Indian state is to show the world how this Hindu state treats the stateless Sikhs. The Hindu state still thinks that machine guns will frighten the Sikhs and keep them away from their peaceful means to carve out the Sikh state of Khalistan.”

* On June 6, 2019, he paid tribute to Bhindranwale and wrote, “Paying tributes to Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other martyrs fought with THIS’s army at Sri Akal Takht Sahib on this day. Long live the struggle for Khalistan.”
Major setback for AAP
The bypoll was necessitated due to the resignation of Bhagwant Mann from the Lok Sabha after he was elected as an MLA in the state assembly elections earlier this year. Bhagwant Mann, who is the state's chief minister now, had won the Sangrur seat in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections.
The bypoll to Sangrur Lok Sabha seat was the first major electoral battle after the Aam Aadmi Party's resounding victory in the state assembly polls in March this year.
For the ruling AAP, the bypoll was seen as a battle of prestige for retaining its bastion. The AAP had won all the nine assembly segments –Lehra, Dirba, Barnala, Sunam, Bhadaur, Mehal Kalan, Malerkotla, Dhuri and Sangrur in the 2022 assembly elections.
(With inputs from agencies)