The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Thursday, announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Punjab. The party named eight of the total 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The AAP fielded popular Punjabi actor Karamjit Anmol from the Faridkot seat, eye specialist Dr Balbir Singh, who is currently health minister of the state from Patiala parliamentary constituency, cabinet ministers, including Gurmeet Singh Khudian from Bathinda, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Amritsar, Laljit Singh Bhullar from Khandur Sahib and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer from Sangrur.
Sitting Member of Parliament (MPs) from Jalandhar, Sushil Kumar Rinku will contest from his present constituency and former MLA Gurpreet Singh GP has been fielded by the AAP from Fatehgarh Sahib.
GP was a legislator from Bassi Pathana between 2017 and 2022.
The party’s candidates include new comers as well as experienced politicians with five cabinet ministers in the first list.
The AAP on Thursday posted the names on its official handle on the social media platform ‘X.”
Karamjit Anmol, who is a known personality in the Punjabi entertainment industry, is also said to be known to the Punjab CM.
Notably, the party is contesting all seats in Punjab on its own as there was mutual agreement between AAP and Congress to contest independently in the state.
The state is set to witness an interesting electoral battle which is going to be multi-cornered despite the AAP being part of the INDIA bloc with Congress and the AAP coming face to face in the state.
The state has a total of 13 Lok Sabha seats, of which four are reserved for (SC) candidates.
Last month, the AAP announced its candidates for Delhi’s 4 LS seats and from Haryana’s Kurukshetra, in tune with their alliance and seat-sharing accord with the Congress under the INDIA bloc.
The AAP fielded Kuldeep Kumar from East Delhi, and senior AAP leader Somnath Bharti from the New Delhi seat, who is likely to face a tough contest with BJP’s Bansuri Swaraj as the opponent.
Sahiram Pahalwan has been placed to fight from the South Delhi seat, while Mahabal Mishra will contest from West Delhi.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta has been fielded by the party from the Kurukshetra seat.