Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Friday accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of arriving at the legislative assembly in an intoxicated state. In a post on social media platform X, Maliwal shared a video clip of Mann addressing the assembly and called for him to undergo an alcohol test. She asserted that if found guilty, he should be removed from the position of chief minister.
Maliwal's Allegations
In her statement, Maliwal said, "Today again, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann arrived at the ‘temple of democracy,’ the Punjab Assembly, allegedly under the influence of alcohol. This man goes to gurdwaras drunk, goes to temples drunk, used to come to the Lok Sabha drunk, attends government meetings drunk, and even drank so much abroad that he was deboarded from a plane." She further added, "Before the elections, he had placed his hand on his mother’s head and promised that he would never drink again. The CM of a sensitive border state like Punjab is allegedly intoxicated all the time… signing files while drunk. What a shame."
Maliwal emphasized that a person who is only sober while sleeping cannot effectively govern Punjab. She reiterated her demand for Mann to undergo an alcohol test and face removal if the test proves positive.
Political Context
This accusation comes shortly after Swati Maliwal, along with Raghav Chadha and five other Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha members, left the party and merged their faction with the BJP. Maliwal was elected as a Rajya Sabha member in January 2024. Her fallout with the AAP began in May 2024 when she alleged physical assault by a close aide of AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal at his residence—a claim she has repeated after leaving the party.
This is not the first time Bhagwant Mann has faced such allegations. In 2022, the opposition accused him of being deplaned from a Delhi-bound flight at Frankfurt airport due to intoxication, a charge the ruling AAP dismissed as baseless.
