AAP shortlists 4, begins survey to make final call

PATIALA: After the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll, the Aam Aadmi Party has started a survey to select its “best” candidate for the high-stakes contest.

Sangrur is a stronghold of the AAP and a number of aspiring candidates are making efforts to get the party ticket. Amid the survey, a number of posters backing chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s sister Manpreet Kaur have been put up in every nook and cranny of the constituency.

Mann won the Sangrur seat for the AAP in 2014 and 2019 general elections and was the only MP from the party in the Lok Sabha in the present tenure. The party also swept all nine assembly segments under the constituency in the state polls.

The LS bypoll has been necessitated after Mann resigned from the seat on becoming the chief minister. The polling is to take place on June 23, according to the schedule released by the ECI on May 25.

“As the Sangrur MP will be the party’s voice in the Lok Sabha, we have to field the best suited person from the seat. As is our practice, we are conducting qualitative and quantitative surveys in the constituency to select the candidate,” said Sandeep Pathak, Rajya Sabha member and AAP’s Punjab co-incharge.

Pathak said that there were many aspirants, but on the basis of the feedback from booth-level workers, four names have been shortlisted. “Further surveys are being conducted to find the suitability of these shortlisted aspirants,” he said.

On the hype around the name of the CM’s sister for the ticket, Pathak said: “Putting up posters will not affect our process of selecting the candidate.”

Pathak said all state legislators from the constituency have been asked to remain in Sangrur and the entire rank and file of the party will launch a campaign to ensure a massive victory after the filing of nominations. The filing of nominations will take place from May 30 to June 6.