On Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) unveiled its first list of eight candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.
The list includes five cabinet ministers: Gurmeet Singh Khudian for Bathinda, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal for Amritsar, Laljit Singh Bhullar for Khandur Sahib, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer for Sangrur, and Dr. Balbir Singh for Patiala.
Additionally, the party nominated sitting MP Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar, as a candidate. Former MLA Gurpreet Singh received the ticket for Fatehgarh Sahib, while Karamjeet Anmol’s name was announced to contest from Faridkot.
On February 27, AAP declared its candidates for four Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and one from Haryana’s Kurukshetra constituency. Kuldeep Kumar received the nomination for the East Delhi constituency, while former Delhi Minister and senior AAP leader Somnath Bharti will contest from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
The party nominated Sahiram Pahalwan for the South Delhi seat, and Mahabal Mishra is set to contest from West Delhi. In Haryana, AAP decided to field Sushil Gupta as the candidate for Kurukshetra.
In Punjab, there are 13 Lok Sabha seats, with four reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates. During the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the Congress-led UPA alliance secured 8 seats, while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won four. The AAP, contesting for the first time in the state, secured one seat. AAP is the first party in the state to announce its candidates for the upcoming general elections.