AAP's Punjab CM face Bhagwant Mann to contest from Dhuri

Chandigarh, Jan 20 (IANS) Two-time Member of Parliament and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann will be contesting from Dhuri in the February 20 polls in Punjab.

The announcement was made by state affairs co in-charge Raghav Chadha in Mohali on Thursday.

"Mann is a pan-Punjab leader and will campaign for party candidates across the state. We are the only party to go into the polls with a CM's face," Chadha told reporters. He also said Mann and Arvind Kejriwal form a formidable team.

Mann, 48, is pitted against Congress sitting legislator Dalvir Singh Goldy where former Sangrur MLA Parkash Chand Garg is in the fray as the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate.

The Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, an outfit floated by 19 farm organisations, has fielded former sarpanch Sarabjit Singh Alal as its candidate.

In 2017 Assembly polls, Goldy defeated AAP's Jasvir Singh Jassi Sekhon by a slender margin of 2,811 votes.

The Dhuri Assembly constituency falls in the Sangrur parliamentary seat that commedia-turned-politician Mann, 48, is representing.

The AAP has so far named candidates on 112 of the 117 Assembly seats.

In the 2017 assembly polls, the Congress won a whopping 77 seats in the 117-member House, while SAD-BJP combine could win only 18 seats. AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats.