Punjab Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann Monday tendered his resignation as Lok Sabh MP from Sangrur. He will taking oath as Punjab CM on March 16. Mann, who won the Punjab Assembly elections from Dhuri, handed over the resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. He was the lone AAP MP in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, MPs from Punjab and Haryana, cutting across party lines gathered around Mann as he reached the House to submit his resignation. “Today, I am resigning from Parliament. People of Sangrur gave me so much love. I thank them for it. Now, I have opportunity to serve all the Punjab. I promise people of Sangrur that their voice will be again heard in Lok Sabha in just few months,” said Mann on Twitter. Amritsar MP Gurjit Aujla shared a photograph of him and other Congress leaders sitting with Mann on benches of Lok Sabha. “Fellow parliamentarians bid farewell to the CM-elect Bhagwant Mann wishing for the welfare of the state. May this farewell be the start of a new life for you,” Aujla said in a tweet. As Mann resigns from Lok Sabha, Punjab MPs come together to bid him farewell Congress MPs from Punjab — Ravneet Bittu, Santok Singh Chaudhary — and BJP's Hoshiarpur MP, Om Parkash, were also there in the picture shared by Aujla. Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, Deepender Singh Hooda, was also present. Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, too shared a picture with Mann and tweeted, “Parliamentary camaraderie: many Congress MPs came up to Bhagwant Mann to congratulate him on his election victory and appointment as CM of Punjab. I had the pleasure of sharing his joy after five years of being seated in the same bench in the Lok Sabha in the previous term.” BSP leader Ritesh Pande also shared a picture with Mann and tweeted: “I met Punjab CM-designate Bhagwant Mann today and congratulated him on historic victory. I came to know about his ideas for Punjab. I wish him good luck for the new journey.” Earlier, Mann, in a video message, invited the people of the state for his oath-taking ceremony on March 16 at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, in Nawanshahr district. “Not only me, 3 crore people of Punjab will also take oath along with me. We together have to fulfil the dreams of Bhagat Singh and we will put his thinking into effect on March 16,” he said. “I have not become the chief minister alone. You all have become the chief minister. It will be your own government,” he said, adding, “I urge my brothers and friends to wear 'basanti' colour turbans and sisters to wear basanti 'dupatta'. We will turn Khatkar Kalan into 'basanti' colour that day”. In a tweet, Mann said, “Let's together build a Punjab of Shaheed Bhagat Singh ji's dreams”.
