Her husband’s ‘messenger’, Mrs Bhagwant Mann takes the stage

The blazing sun has set but the heat lingers in the summer evening. In the Muslim-majority Dugni village of Dhuri in Sangrur district, Parveen Begum, the wife of the sarpanch, is busy arranging flower petals and garlands. The flag of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) flutters outside the house.

A few metres away, under a tent pitched for a nukkad meeting, a crowd that is getting restless is told that Dr Gurpreet Kaur, the wife of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, will reach anytime now. While several young women say they are here just for a selfie with her, Muksaan Khan, 23, a postgraduate working as a chemist, says: “CM sir or Gurpreet madam, it means the same. If we can speak to her, it means the message has reached the CM.”

Minutes later, a cavalcade consisting of SUVs and security vehicles drives in. Gurpreet, accompanied by Mann’s sister Manpreet Kaur, alights from a Toyota Fortuner. Dressed in a blue suit, head covered with a dupatta, she makes her way through the crowd, smiling, hugging women and obliging children with photos.

This is the coming out election of Gurpreet, a practising doctor who got married to Mann in July 2022 (months after he became CM) and gave birth to their daughter two months ago.

From the stage, a party worker welcomes the 34-year-old, talking of her “dedication to Dhuri (Mann’s constituency, which is part of the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat)”. “Eh apne nikke je bachhe nu, jigar de totey nu, ghar chadke aayee ne. Iss to hi hisaab laalo (She has come here leaving her little baby, a piece of her heart back home. What more proof is needed).”

Gurpreet took up the responsibility of looking after Dhuri soon after their marriage, relieving Mann of tension regarding his constituency, as CM duties kept him busy.