The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) released its first list of eight candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from Punjab on Thursday, including five cabinet ministers.
They are NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Amritsar, transport minister Laljit Singh Bhullar from Khadoor Sahib, sports and youth affairs minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer from Sangrur, Gurmeet Singh Khudian from Bathinda, health minister Dr Balbir Singh from Patiala, sitting MP Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar, former MLA Gurpreet Singh GP from Fatehgarh Sahib and Karamjeet Anmol from Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency.
Also read: LS polls: Punjab BJP panel to shortlist nominees for all 13 seats today
The names of candidates were announced by AAP national general secretary Dr Sandeep Pathak.
Punjab has 13 Lok Sabha seats.
The AAP, which currently has one MP, is the first party to name its candidates in the state.
Hayer has been fielded from Sangrur, a seat won by chief minister Bhagwant Mann in 2014 and 2019, but the AAP lost in the bypoll in 2022.
A former Congress MLA from Bassi Pathana, Gurpreet Singh GP is a Dalit leader and had joined the AAP last week.
Rinku had also joined the AAP from the Congress ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha byelection last year and went on to win the seat.
Karamjeet Anmol is a Punjabi singer.
{{/usCountry}}Karamjeet Anmol is a Punjabi singer.
{{/usCountry}}Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday launched the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Punjab with the slogan – Sansad ch vee Bhagwant Mann, Khushaal Punjab te vadhegi shaan (With Bhagwant Mann in Parliament as well, Punjab will be happy and prosperous), making Mann the face of the party for the Lok Sabha elections.