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Punjab polls: AAP drops minister, 6 other MLAs in second list of 31 candidates
AAP’s second list names candidates for 31 Punjab constituencies, including 17 seats held by opposition parties.
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The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dropped seven sitting MLAs, including a cabinet minister and two former ministers, and fielded two Lok Sabha MPs in its second list of 31 candidates announced on Thursday for the high-stakes Punjab assembly elections, scheduled early next year.
Those dropped include cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian (Lambi), former ministers Anmol Gagan Maan (Kharar) and Laljit Singh Bhullar (Patti), Raman Arora (Jalandhar Central), Dr Charanjit Singh (Chamkaur Sahib), Amit Rattan Kotfatta (Bathinda Rural) and Kulwant Bazigar (Shutrana).
At the same time, it has fielded Hoshiarpur MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal and Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer from the Phagwara and Barnala assembly constituencies, respectively.
The reshuffle signals a calibrated strategy to field fresh faces to counter local anti-incumbency against some sitting MLAs and improve the party’s electoral prospects.
The candidates were finalised by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia and other senior party leaders at a meeting in the morning before receiving approval from the party’s political affairs committee, its highest decision-making body, in Delhi.
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With this announcement, the AAP has taken a clear head start over its political rivals in Punjab, declaring candidates for 71 of the state’s 117 assembly constituencies.
In its first list of 40 candidates, released on October 31, the party had renominated chief minister Bhagwant Mann, jailed minister Sanjeev Arora and 38 sitting legislators from their respective constituencies.
Apart from Mann and Arora, none of the other 13 members of the state cabinet has figured in the two lists so far.
After the first list was announced, three party MLAs – Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh (Amritsar North), Chetan Singh Jouramajra (Samana) and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra (Sanour) – switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last week.
Speaking to the media, Mann said the selection process was based on survey reports, public feedback and candidates’ ground-level work.
He said there was no quota, nepotism or lobbying and that the list included young candidates, experienced party workers and people whose names had emerged because of their work at the grassroots level.
“According to the AAP’s style of working from the very beginning, we have announced 71 candidates. In other words, you could say we are leading 71-0, because the other parties are caught in their own internal bickering and fighting over chairs,” he said.
He added that the AAP wanted to give candidates maximum time and opportunity to reach out to the public and present the party’s achievements and policies.
In the 2022 assembly polls, the AAP won 92 of the state’s 117 seats, while the Congress secured 18 seats, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) three and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) two. The remaining two seats were won by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and an Independent candidate.
Dropped MLAs and Fresh Faces
Giant slayers out, fresh faces in
Dropped from the fray, cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who holds the agriculture and farmers’ welfare and animal husbandry portfolios, and Dr Charanjit Singh were among the giant slayers in the 2022 assembly polls, defeating former chief ministers.
Khudian had trounced Akali patriarch and five-time former CM Parkash Singh Badal by 11,396 votes in Badal’s stronghold of Lambi.
Khudian has now been replaced by his nephew, Randhir Singh Dhira Khudian, who was earlier with the Congress.
The denial of a party ticket to Gurmeet has fuelled speculation that it may be linked to his verbal spat with Sisodia at a party meeting in Ludhiana in May this year over the selection of candidates for municipal elections. Dhira was appointed chairman of the Punjab State Container Warehousing Corporation (CONWARE) soon after the incident.
Similarly, Dr Charanjit Singh, who defeated former CM Charanjit Singh Channi in Chamkaur Sahib by over 7,900 votes, has been denied renomination.
The party has fielded Jasvir Singh Garhi, former chairman of the Punjab Scheduled Castes’ Commission, in his place.
A prominent Dalit face, Garhi was earlier the state president of the Bahujan Samaj Party and joined the AAP in January 2025. He was recently appointed halka in-charge of Chamkaur Sahib.
Constituency Replacements and Opposition Contests
Controversial former minister Laljit Bhullar and MLA Raman Arora have been replaced by fresh faces – wrestler Jaskanwar Singh Gill, popularly known as Jassa Patti, and industrialist Nitin Kohli – in the Patti and Jalandhar Central assembly constituencies, respectively.
Bhullar is currently lodged in jail in connection with the suicide of a district manager of a government corporation in Amritsar, while Arora is facing Vigilance Bureau cases. Bhullar had ruled himself out of the electoral race.
The AAP had signalled its intention to nominate Jassa Patti and Kohli by appointing them as halka in-charges of their respective constituencies five months ago.
Similarly, halka in-charge Parminder Singh Goldy has replaced Anmol Gagan Maan in Kharar, while former PCS officer Gopal Singh has been fielded in place of Amit Rattan Kotfatta in Bathinda Rural.
Former SAD MLA Vaninder Kaur Loomba, who switched to the AAP in July 2026, has replaced Kulwant Bazigar in Shutrana. Two sitting MLAs who have been renominated in the second list are Saravjit Kaur Manuke from Jagraon and Amandeep Singh Goldy Musafir from Balluana.
Fresh faces fielded in 17 of 21 opposition-held seats
The AAP also put its cards on the table by naming candidates against opposition bigwigs, including leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Punjab Congress chief Pargat Singh and former Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma.
Of the 31 constituencies covered in the second list, 21 are held by opposition parties, with the AAP fielding fresh faces in 17 of these seats.
The party has fielded former SAD leader Guriqbal Singh Mahal, who joined the AAP in June this year, against Bajwa in the Qadian assembly constituency. Mahal was the SAD nominee against Bajwa in the 2022 assembly elections.
AAP halka in-charge Deepak Bali, who is also adviser to the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board, has been fielded against Pargat Singh, a three-time MLA, in Jalandhar Cantonment, while advocate Harsimran Singh will take on Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in Bholath.
Former AAP district president Rohit Syal will fight Ashwani Sharma in Pathankot.
Other candidates include former Akali leader Talbir Singh Gill from Majitha, former MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu from Adampur, Dr Suhani Doda, daughter-in-law of former SAD leader Shivlal Doda, from Abohar, Sonia Mann from Raja Sansi, former mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu from Amritsar North and former Congress leader Devinderpal Singh Ranga from Kapurthala.
Women Candidates
The 31-candidate list features five women candidates, taking the total to nine so far. They include Vaninder Kaur Loomba from Shutrana, Saravjit Kaur Manuke from Jagraon, Suhani Doda from Abohar, Harjot Kaur Lohtia from Phillaur and Sonia Mann from Raja Sansi.
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