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Punjab assembly elections: AAP fields Goldy from Kharar
The announcement came in the party’s second list of 31 candidates which saw several sitting MLAs, including a cabinet minister, being dropped and new faces being inducted
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Banking on a fresh face, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday named Punjab youth development board chairman and former student leader Parminder Singh Goldy as its candidate from Kharar for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections. The party has held the seat since 2022.
The announcement came in the party’s second list of 31 candidates which saw several sitting MLAs, including a cabinet minister, being dropped and new faces being inducted. His candidature was authorised by Punjab AAP in-charge Manish Sisodia and state president Aman Arora, according to a party communication.
The announcement follows Goldy’s appointment as the party’s halka in-charge for Kharar in September. Thanking party national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Sisodia, Mann and Arora, Goldy said in a post on X that he was grateful to the leadership for reposing its trust in him.
The seat is currently represented by singer-turned-politician Anmol Gagan Maan, who had submitted her resignation as MLA in July 2025 but continued in office after the party rejected it.
AAP’s two successive wins
Kharar has backed AAP in the last two assembly elections, although the party fielded different candidates in both contests. While in 2022, Maan had defeated Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Ranjit Singh Gill’s by a margin of 37,885 votes, in 2017, the party had won Kharar in its first assembly outing in the state, with journalist-turned-politician Kanwar Sandhu securing 54,171 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Jagmohan Singh Kang, who polled 52,159 votes.
Goldy’s political journey
Goldy began his political career through student politics at Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh. Starting as a class monitor, he rose through the ranks to become the college’s vice-president and president.
In 2006, he was elected Panjab University president on a Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) ticket. He joined AAP in 2013 and became president of its student wing in 2015.
A seat with a changing political history
Before AAP’s consecutive victories, Kharar largely alternated between the Congress and SAD. Congress’s Jagmohan Singh Kang won the constituency in 2002 and 2012, while SAD’s Ujagar Singh Badali secured it in 2007.
