CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may release its second list of candidates for the upcoming 2027 Punjab Assembly elections today.
A meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) is scheduled to be held in Delhi at 4 pm, which will also be attended by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Sources said that the party may take decisions on six ministerial constituencies during the meeting. The second list is expected to include 15 to 20 candidates. The second list is likely to include the names of some cabinet ministers, sitting MLAs and constituency-level halqa in-charges.
The party is expected to deliberate on the winnability of candidates and its electoral strategy before finalizing the names. There are also indications that tickets of some sitting MLAs may be dropped.
CM Mann has left for Delhi to attend the meeting, which will be chaired by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal. The meeting is expected to discuss the names of candidates for several Assembly constituencies as the party steps up the poll preparation.
This list is expected to provide further clarity on the party's candidate selection exercise, particularly in constituencies where ministers, sitting legislators and local-level functionaries are being considered.
Meanwhile, former transport minister and Patti MLA Laljit Singh Bhullar has announced that he will not contest the upcoming Assembly elections. Bhullar is currently lodged in jail.
The candidature of several senior leaders and ministers who did not figure in the first list is also expected to come up during subsequent rounds of discussions.
While AAP appeared to have played it safe with its first list by renominating all sitting MLAs, opposition parties questioned why no cabinet ministers had been renominated, with Sanjeev Arora, currently in judicial custody, being the sole exception.
Earlier, on October 31, AAP had announced its first list of 40 candidates, in which all sitting MLAs, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri and Speaker Kultar Sandhwan from Kotkapura were given tickets. The party also retained several legislators who had won their seats in the previous two Assembly elections.
The opposition also alleged that the party hurriedly announced the re-nomination of its sitting legislators to keep its flock together and pre-empt possible defections ahead of the Assembly elections. Following the announcement, the party witnessed resignations by three of its sitting MLAs.
Harmeet Pathanmajra from Sanaur, and Chetan Jouramajra from Samana, resigned from the party. Both, along with former AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, subsequently joined the BJP. The resignations led to vacancies in the Samana, Sanaur and Amritsar (North) assembly constituencies.
The ruling party announced the re-nomination of 40 sitting MLAs in its first list for the 2027 Assembly elections leaving 51 of its current legislators yet to be named. The assembly also has three vacant seats, while the remaining 23 are with opposition parties and an Independent.
AAP had won 92 seats in the 2022 Assembly elections, with its strength subsequently rising to 94 before the recent resignations.