AAP MLAs reaffirm trust in party :Opp absent, Mann tables and wins confidence motion

The Congress members were not present in the House when the resolution was tabled and passed. They had staged a walkout earlier seeking alcohol test for the chief minister alleging that he was in an inebriated condition. Only two Opposition MLAs — BSP’s Nachhattar Pal and Independent Rana Inder Partap Singh — were present. They did not oppose the confidence motion. The BJP, which has two members in the House, had boycotted the special session. Of the three Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLAs, one Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi who had switched over to AAP, was present while Manpreet Singh Ayali and Ganieve Kaur Majithia gave the session a miss.

The motion was passed with a voice vote amid thumping of benches by the ruling party MLAs as well as the CM. AAP had 94 MLAs in the 117 member Assembly. The party had on Thursday issued a whip directing all MLAs to remain present in House. Of the 94 MLAs, 87 were present. Four AAP legislators — Kunwar Vijay Partap, Devinder Singh Laddi Dhose, Jaswinder Singh Attari and Manjinder Singh Lalpura — were among the absentees. Two others Harmit Singh Pathanmajra and former minister Laljit Singh Bhullar could not attend the session as they are in jail. The one remaining AAP MLA is Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan.

Earlier, while introducing the motion, Mann said that there are rumours that AAP will be is on the brink of breaking apart and “such rumours create an illusion in people’s minds”.

“I want to tell the House that AAP will not break. The party is strong. We have five MLAs in Gujarat, two in Goa, one in Jammu & Kashmir. In Delhi, we are the main opposition. Our government in Punjab is running successfully. Besides, AAP has its mayors, councillors, sarpanches at various places, the party has a national presence,” Mann said.

He said the rumours about rift in AAP were a creation of the Opposition Congress. “They can see that in 2027, nobody will even engage with them,” he said.

The CM said that the broom (AAP’s party symbol) was meant for cleaning the politics, and some bristles keep falling out of it. “This, however, does not affect the broom,” he said, adding the AAP has done exemplary work. He said the water table has gone up by by two to four meters, canal water has reached the fields, and the party enacted a law against the sacrilege.

Later, while concluding the debate, Mann hit out at the BJP. “The BJP is so insecure that they keep taking people from other parties. In Punjab, they do not have 117 candidates. AAP is a party of lakhs. I will take the copy of the motion with me to President Droupdi Murmu,” he said.

Mann will be meeting the President on May 5 to formally demand the “recall” of six of the Rajya Sabha MPs elected from the state who have defected to the BJP.

On April 24, AAP’s Upper House members Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal quit and merged with the BJP. All of them, barring Maliwal, were elected from Punjab.

Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who seconded the motion, too slammed the BJP-led Centre over the issue of defection of AAP’s MPs. He accused the Centre of misusing central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI, against political rivals. “The BJP government is indulging in gundagardi” (hooliganism),” Cheema said.

Kharar MLA Anmol Gagan Maan said, “We will remain loyal soldiers of AAP till our last breath. We have been given a chance by AAP and it is our party which has brought us to this level.”

MLA Manjit Singh Bilaspur said they will continue to stand by the party like a rock. “We are with the party and we will continue to remain in the party,” said Bilaspur, MLA from the Nihal Singh Wala seat.

Minister Sanjeev Arora said the AAP government carried out the kind of work for people’s welfare in the past four years which had not been done in the past 70 years by the previous governments. He also spoke about free electricity for the domestic sector.

In 2025-26, Punjab attracted investments of Rs 60,256 crore, which is the highest in the state’s history, said Arora, who holds the portfolios of power and industries and commerce.