Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday released its first list of eight candidates for the upcoming general elections from Punjab, including five ministers of the chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s Cabinet.
The state has 13 Lok Sabha seats.
Details of the list
Interestingly, the list also includes the name of Punjabi film actor and singer Karamjeet Anmol, who had also acted in several of the comedy and satirical TV serials with Mann during the latter’s stint in the entertainment industry prior to his entry into politics.
The five ministers of the Mann’s Cabinet are NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, transport minister Laljit Bhullar, from Khadoor Sahib, sports and youth affairs minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Sangrur, Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Bathinda, health minister Dr Balbir Singh, Patiala.
The remaining two candidates are Sushil Rinku, the only AAP sitting MP, from Jalandhar, and the former MLA from Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurpreet Singh GP. GP had recently joined AAP from Congress.
Notably, Hayer has been fielded from Sangrur, a seat which had been won by Mann in 2014 and 2019 but the AAP had lost the seat in the bypoll in 2022 after he took over as the CM.
It may be recalled that AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal along with his Punjab counterpart Mann had launched the party campaign for the upcoming elections on Monday making Mann the face of the party for the Lok Sabha elections. Mann said that AAP would win all the 13 seats of Punjab.
