Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday thanked Punjab Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann for inviting him to his swearing-in ceremony. However, the Lok Sabha MP from Punjab's Anandpur Sahib said he could not attend the ceremony due to Parliament being in session.
Interestingly, Tewari claimed that he was not Charanjit Singh Channi 's swearing-in ceremony on September 20 last year.
"I congratulate Bhagwant Mann on being sworn in as Chief Minister. I thank him for inviting me to his swearing-in. Due to Parliament being in session I will not be able to make it. It is ironic I was not invited to Charanjit Singh Channi's swearing-in though he was one of my MLA's," Tewari said in a tweet. Tewari also shared the invitation card on the microblogging site.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a landslide victory in the Punjab polls with 92 seats, pushing most of its rivals to the margins. Congress had won 18 seats in the 117-member Assembly.
In what can be seen as an apparent rift in the Punjab Congress, Manish Tewari was not on the list of party's star campaigners for the Assembly elections.
Bhagwant Mann is all set to be sworn in state's Chief Minister at Khatkar Kalan, Bhagat Singh's ancestral village, in the presence of the party convenor Arvind Kejriwal and all its MLAs while the outgoing CM Charanjit Singh Channi hasn't been invited.
Also, no Union Minister or any big leader of the national level has been invited for the oath-taking ceremony, which will be attended only by AAP leaders and party's Punjab leaders, added the AAP sources.
Further, the family members and those who are close to the Chief Minister-designate have been invited to the oath-taking ceremony, besides several artists from Punjab.
( With inputs from ANI )
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