Following a meeting between incoming Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Director General (DGP) of the Punjab Police VK Bhawra, the security cover of 122 politicians in the state has now been withdrawn or substantially reduced.
The list mostly covers those who were previously ministers or MLAs but failed to win their elections this time around, including Manpreet Singh Badal and Pargat Singh of the Congress, Adaish Partap Kairon and Surjit Singh Rakhra from the Shiromani Akali Dal and even former AAP MLAs like Jagtar Singh Hissowal, HS Phoolka and Rupinder Kaur Ruby, according to The Indian Express.
There has been a loss of some amount of security cover even for some Congress MLAs who have been re-elected but will not obviously be ministers this time around, such as Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.
Despite their losses, the list does not include names of former chief ministers Captain Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal, as well as the SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Sidhu's wife, Navjot Kaur, who failed to win her election bid, has lost her security cover.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, 12 March, Mann responded to the reports of the security cover being withdrawn by saying that the security of the people of Punjab was more important than that of a few people.
"Police stations are lying vacant. We will take only police work from police force. I think the security of the people of Punjab is more important than the security of few people."Punjab CM-designate Bhagwant Mann to ANI
(With inputs from Indian Express and ANI)
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