AAP releases second list, bets on new faces
CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday released a list of 30 candidates for the Punjab assembly elections early next year, fielding former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh from the Amritsar North seat.
Kunwar Vijay was part of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident. He took premature retirement from service in April this year after the Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the probe report filed by the SIT. The former inspector general of police joined the AAP in June.
This is the second list of party nominees and all, except seven, are fresh faces. The others have contested the assembly or Lok Sabha elections in the past. The first list of 10 candidates – all of them sitting AAP MLAs repeated from the seats presently held by them – was released by the party last month.
In 2017, the AAP had won 20 seats to emerge as the principal opposition. The party was then rocked by internal squabbling and desertions, which reduced its effective strength to 11.
Raman Bahl, who switched sides from the Congress to the AAP exactly a month ago, has been given ticket from Gurdaspur, according to the list signed by AAP state in-charge Jarnail Singh and state president Bhagwant Mann.
Bahl, a former chairman of the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board, is the son of former minister and fourtime Gurdaspur MLA Khushal Bahl. He remained president of the Gurdaspur municipal council twice.
Punjabi singer Anmol Gagan Mann is the AAP nominee from Kharar. The seat was won by AAP’s Kanwar Sandhu in 2017, but he was suspended for antiparty activities two years ago.
Former improvement trust chairman Vibhuti Sharma has been given the ticket from Pathankot, while Jagrup Singh Sekhwan, the son of former minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, has been named the party candidate from Qadian. Sekhwan Senior died in October, days after joining the AAP. Punjabi singer-action Balkar Sidhu is the party candidate from Rampura Phul.
Former MLA Naresh Kataria has been fielded from Zira. Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who was the covering candidate of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh during the 2017 assembly elections, has been given the ticket from Lambi. His father Jagtar Singh Khudian was MP from Faridkot. The list also includes DCP Balkar Singh (Kartarpur), Ravjot Singh (Sham Chaurasi) Balbir Singh Pannu (Fatehgarh Churian), Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar (Amritsar South), Gurdit Singh Sekhon (Faridkot) Sherry Kalsi (Batala), Lalit Mohan ‘Ballu’ Pathak (Nawanshahr), Lalijit Singh Bhullar (Patti), Daljit Singh (Ludhiana East), Kulwant Singh Sidhu (Atam Nagar), Manwinder Singh Gyaspura (Payal, SC), Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar (Muktsar), Neena Mittal (Rajpura), Harmeet Singh (Sanour), Chetan Singh (Samana) and Madan Lal Bagga (Ludhiana North).
Jiwan Singh has been fielded from Gill (SC), Gurlal from Ghanaur, Labh Singh Ugoke from Bhadaur (SC), Lal Chand from Bhoa (SC) and Harbhajan Singh from Jandiala (SC) seat.