Chandigarh: AAP leader and former Punjab minister Anmol Gagan Maan Saturday said she has resigned as a member of the state Assembly and decided to quit politics.
The 35-year-old singer-turned-politician, who won her maiden election from Kharar Assembly constituency in 2022, sent her resignation to the Punjab Assembly Speaker, Kultar Singh Sandhwan.
“My heart is heavy, but I have decided to leave politics. My resignation from the post of MLA to the Speaker should be accepted.
“My best wishes are with the party. I hope the Punjab government will live up to the expectations of the people,” said Maan in a post in Punjabi on X.
She did not cite the reason for the decision. Party sources said Maan resigned a few days ago, and the party had tried to persuade her to reconsider her decision.
When Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was asked about the resignation, he replied that he had just come to know about it, and he would hold a party meeting on the matter.
Punjab AAP president Aman Arora described Anmol Gagan Maan “like a younger sister” and said he will discuss the issue with her.
“We work as a team… we will sit and we are colleagues and she is like my younger sister,” said Arora, who is also the Cabinet minister.
Earlier this week, Anmol Gagan Maan met AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and said in a post on X that they held an in-depth discussion on various key issues. “His dream of uplifting society always fills us with courage and inspiration,” she had said.
Anmol Gagan Maan became minister during the Bhagwant Mann government’s first cabinet expansion in July 2022. She was among five MLAs who were given Cabinet berths.
At that time, she was the second woman to become a cabinet minister in the AAP government. She was given charge of tourism and culture affairs, investment promotion, labour and removal of grievances departments.
However, in September 2024, the Bhagwant Mann government dropped four ministers, including her, from the Cabinet.
In the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, the singer-turned-politician had defeated Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Ranjit Sing Gill from the Kharar seat by a margin of 37,885 votes.
Gill, who unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls from the Kharar seat twice and was once considered close to SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, quit the party Friday. The real estate developer has not revealed his next move.
Anmol Gagan Maan, who hailed from Mansa district, began her political career with the Aam Aadmi Party, which she joined in July 2020.
According to her 2022 poll affidavit, she studied till Class 12. Before taking a plunge into politics, she had made her name in the Punjabi music industry.
The singer-turned-politician later became AAP youth wing co-president and actively participated in the party’s protest programmes and took on the then Congress regime before the assembly polls.
She also sang a campaign song — ‘Kejriwal hai’ — for the Aam Aadmi Party for the 2022 assembly elections.
Before the 2022 polls, Anmol Gagan Maan had said that if the AAP comes to power, the government would give the MSP on each crop “within five minutes”. The opposition leaders used her video statement to target the AAP after it failed to fulfil the promise.
In September 2024, she accused administrative officers in Mohali of seeking bribes in her name. She had then levelled allegations against executive officers and tehsildars of Kharar of bringing disrepute to her.
She also faced flak from her political rivals for the poor conditions of roads and the sewage system at several places in her assembly constituency.
When she was a minister in June 2024, Maan tied the knot with advocate Shahbaaz Singh Sohi. They got married at a gurdwara in Mohali’s Zirakpur with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and several AAP leaders attending the ceremony.
PTI
