Chandigarh/New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar president Simranjit Mann has taken oath as a member of the Lok Sabha constituency Sangrur. Simranjit, 77, was elected Member of Parliament for the third time after 23 years from the Sangrur constituency, which had become vacant after AAP's Bhagwant Mann resigned before taking oath as the Chief Minister.
Simranjit had secured 253,154 votes while AAP's Gurmail Singh came second with 2,47,332 votes and Dalveer Goldi of Congress came third with 79,668 votes. BJP's Kewal Dhillon got 66,298 votes and Akali Dal's Bibi Kamaldeep Kaur got 44,428 votes. Simranjit had contested the 1989 Lok Sabha elections from Bhagalpur Jail where he was lodged in 1984 in a case in connection with the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
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Simranjit had filed his nomination papers from Tarn Taran against Congress president Ajit Singh Mann of Amritsar district in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections and registered a record victory by getting 5,27,707 votes. Simranjit is an IPS officer of the 1967 cadre and was posted ASP in Ludhiana, SSP in Ferozepur, and Faridkot. He was also posted as Group Commandant of CISF in Mumbai.
After the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 18 June 1984, Simranjit Singh Mann resigned in protest against the attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar during the anti-Sikh riots and the Saka Nila Tara. Several cases were registered against Mann for his alleged involvement in plotting the assassination of Gandhi, which also included a case of sedition.
Meanwhile, Former finance minister P Chidambaram and cricketer-turn-politician Harbhajan Singh were among the 28 recently elected Rajya Sabha MPs who took oath on Monday. On the opening day of Parliament's Monsoon session, Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram's former colleague in the previous UPA government, also took oath as a member of the Upper House.
Sibal quit Congress and was elected to Rajya Sabha as an independent candidate from Uttar Pradesh with the support of the Samajwadi Party. Harbhajan Singh, who was elected to the Upper House from Punjab as Aam Adami Party (AAP) nominee, took oath in Punjabi. Others who took oath were Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, former Union minister Praful Patel, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla.
The list also included YSRCP's Masthan Rao Beeda and V Vijayasai Reddy, RJD's Faiyaz Ahmad, JD-U's Khiru Mahto, JMM's Mahua Maji, BJD's Sasmit Patra, AAP's Sandeep Kumar Pathak and Vikramjit Singh Sahney DMK's R Girirajan, S Kalyanasundaram and KRN Rajeshkumar as well as AIADMK's C Ve Shanmugam, and Javed Ali Khan of the SP.
BJP's Shambhu Sharan Patel, Aditya Prasad and Jaggesh, as well as Congress leaders Ranjeet Ranjan, Pramod Kumar and Imran Pratapgarhi and nominated member V Vijayendra Prasad took oath too. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked members taking oath to go back to their respective seats after signing the member's register and not start exchanging pleasantries with other leaders.
"Meeting and greeting can be done afterwards," he said. "While taking the oath, one should read the prescribed form. Any deviation will make their oath invalid. I don't want to name anybody, one of the members has to take the oath again today because of such deviation," he said without naming anyone. Naidu said nothing other than the prescribed oath will be part of the record. "And, secondly, it will invalidate your oath. If somebody questions, then it will be a problem also. Please keep this in mind and also follow my advice."
