Mann's Kikli Targets Sukhbir; SAD Hits Back with AI Video

Chief Minister deploys trademark folk verse at Moga rally; Akalis fight back with AI-generated clip and Badal’s direct challenge from Patiala

North Desk correspondent

CHANDIGARH, April 6

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is back to his old tricks — and this time the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has responded in kind, on two fronts simultaneously.

Addressing a public rally in Moga on Saturday, Mann revived his signature political weapon: the kikli, a Punjabi children’s folk verse he long ago repurposed as campaign satire. The lines he recited were aimed squarely at SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal — and also at Sukhbir’s brother-in-law and senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia:

Kikli kaleer di

Mat mari gayi Sukhbir di

Punjab ehnu chaunda ni

Vote koi paunda ni

The verse — loosely translating as “Sukhbir has lost his senses, Punjab doesn’t want him, no one will vote for him” — drew laughter from the crowd at the Moga event. Notably, Mann’s kikli was directed exclusively at the Akalis, with Congress and the BJP left out of this particular broadside.

‘Kiklis don’t matter’

Sukhbir Badal took it personally. Addressing the SAD’s Punjab Bachao rally in Patiala on Sunday, he came out swinging. He declared that Mann can make up any number of kiklis he wants, but this will not save him from the wrath of Punjabis who want to hold him accountable for betraying them in every possible sphere. He then issued a direct challenge: “I challenge Mann to visit any village in Punjab without his posse of 500 police personnel and security apparatus, which imposes a lockdown wherever he goes, as it did in Jaito. Once he does this, Punjabis will make him forget his cheap kiklis once and for all.”

Badal also raised the political stakes beyond wordplay, warning that Mann and his officers will not be allowed to escape from the state after the 2027 assembly elections and will be held accountable for their “corrupt actions.”

Video attack!

But the SAD’s sharpest counter came on social media. The party’s official account posted an AI-generated video that flipped the script entirely on Mann. In the clip, ‘Mann Sahib’ is shown lying in a hospital bed, with a doctor informing the family that the patient has been struck by “Sukhbir Phobia”. The prescription: keep the patient away from Sukhbir’s social media videos for a speedy recovery.

The tit-for-tat captures something new about Punjab’s pre-election political culture. What began as Mann’s trademark blend of comedy and campaigning — a format he pioneered during the 2017 elections when he first recited a kikli targeting the Badal family — has now prompted the opposition to fight on the same satirical terrain. The Akalis, who long struggled to land punches against Mann’s populist communication style, appear to have concluded that the only answer to a comedian-turned-politician is to out-meme him.

With the 2027 assembly elections drawing closer, both AAP and SAD are clearly in full campaign mode. For Mann, the kikli signals he intends to fight the next election as he has fought every previous one — on the front foot, with humour as the sharpest weapon in his arsenal. For the Akalis, the rally rhetoric and the AI video together suggest they are no longer willing to cede either the street or the social media battlefield.