AAP Unveils First Punjab Slate, Leaning on Malwa and the Familiar Comfort of Incumbents
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The Aam Aadmi Party has released its first set of 40 candidates for the Punjab assembly election, centering the Malwa region and largely sticking with sitting MLAs, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rolled out its first list of 40 candidates for the upcoming Punjab assembly election after a meeting of its Political Affairs Committee in Delhi attended by national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The list, announced by national secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta, shows Mann seeking another mandate from Dhuri and includes minister Sanjeev Arora, who is contesting from Ludhiana West despite pending legal proceedings.
The slate is overwhelmingly tilted toward the Malwa region, with 27 candidates drawn from its 69 assembly seats. By comparison, five candidates are from Majha and eight from Doaba. AAP officials said the party focused on "safe seats" and leaned on performance records and public surveys to shape the selections.
Four women—Inderjit Kaur Mann, Santosh Kataria, Baljinder Kaur and Dr. Amandeep Kaur Arora—are among the nominees, and seven Scheduled Caste candidates have also been named. Former ministers Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Bram Shanker Sharma Jimpa, Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar and Balkar Singh are included, while party president Aman Arora does not appear on the list.
"The surveys also favoured these sitting MLAs," an AAP leader said, adding that the party believes incumbents face little anti-incumbency risk.
The announcement comes ahead of a multi-cornered contest involving the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP.