Punjab 2022: AAP storms to power; Moosewala killed

Chandigarh: The AAP's thumping victory in the Punjab Assembly polls, the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala in Mansa and the tussle between Raj Bhavan and Bhagwant Mann government over several issues dominated the year 2022. The year also witnessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's convoy getting stuck for a few minutes on a flyover in Ferozepur due to a protest. The people of Punjab voted for 'badlav' (change) in the February assembly polls as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stormed to power in the state for the first time, decimating the Congress and the SAD-BSP combine.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party bagged 92 seats in the 117-member state assembly as it turned out to be a defining moment in the border state in 2022. Nearly nine months into the office, the Bhagwant Mann government may have patted its back over giving 300 units a month of free electricity, offering over 20,000 government jobs and action against graft, but the AAP dispensation faced Opposition's ire over "deteriorating" law and order in the state.

Two rocket-propelled grenade attacks at Punjab Police's intelligence headquarters in Mohali and Tarn Taran police station while frequent movements of drones from across the border carrying narcotics and weapons, targeted killings and extortion threats by gangsters posed serious challenges for security agencies in the state. The brutal murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in Mansa in May sent shock waves in the state. The investigation into his murder found the involvement of Lawrence Bishnoi gang that got the singer eliminated in retaliation to the murder of youth Akali leader Vicky Middukhera. Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, a member of the Bishnoi gang, was the mastermind behind the killing, police said. Four shooters were arrested while two were neutralized by police in connection with the case. In January, Prime Minister Modi had to return from poll-bound Punjab without attending an event and a rally in Ferozepur after his convoy was stranded on a flyover due to a blockade by farm protesters which was seen as a "major security lapse".

Chief Minister Mann in May sacked health minister Dr Vijay Singla from his Cabinet over corruption charges in barely two months after the AAP came to power, riding on the agenda of corruption-free governance. In July, Mann turned groom when he married Gurpreet Kaur, a doctor from Haryana's Kurukshetra. This was 49-year-old Mann's second marriage who separated from his first wife in 2015. The victory of AAP in the assembly polls forced leaders like Parkash Singh Badal, Amarinder Singh, Sukhbir Badal, Charanjit Singh Channi and Navjot Singh Sidhu to bite the dust. Former CM Amarinder Singh, whose party Punjab Lok Congress failed to make any mark in the polls, later joined the BJP.

However, the ruling AAP got a shocker in June when it lost the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll to SAD (Amritsar) candidate and Khalistan proponent Simranjit Singh Mann. Punjab's health minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra came under fire after he was seen "forcing" the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS)to lie on a dirty mattress at a hospital. Raj Bahadur tendered his resignation as VC after he felt "humiliated". In September, the AAP accused the BJP of offering Rs 20-25 crore each to its seven to 10 MLAs in Punjab under its 'Operation Lotus' in a bid to topple the Bhagwant Mann government.

Later part of the year, the squabble between Raj Bhavan and the AAP government over holding a special session of Vidhan Sabha and appointment of vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University too made the headlines. Governor Banwarilal Purohit thwarted the Bhagwant Mann-led regime's plan to summon a special assembly session in September to bring a confidence motion after he withdrew his order of summoning it.

Later, when the governor asked for details of the legislative business to be taken up in the proposed assembly session, it evoked sharp reaction from CM Mann who said, "it's too much". Purohit while reminding the CM of his duties wrote to him and said he appeared to be "too much angry" with him. The tussle between Raj Bhavan and AAP government escalated when Purohit declined appointment of noted cardiologist Dr Gurpreet Singh Wander as VC of BFUHS and also sought removal of PAU VC S S Gosal while dubbing it as "totally illegal".

The targeted killings of Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri in Amritsar, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower in Faridkot and later a cloth merchant in Jalandhar gave enough fodder to the Opposition to attack the AAP government while seeking resignation of CM Mann who holds the home portfolio. A students' protest rocked the Chandigarh University in Mohali following allegations that a hosteller recorded several objectionable videos of women students in the common washroom.

Former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was sent to jail in May after being sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a 1988 road rage death case. The Mann government came under sharp attack in April after it lodged FIRs against BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga for allegedly making provocative statements and promoting enmity and former AAP leader Kumar Vishwas over his "inflammatory" statements against Kejriwal.