Two AAP MLAs Resign After Candidate List Sparks Backlash in Punjab
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Two Aam Aadmi Party MLAs have quit the Punjab assembly after the party’s first list of candidates for the 2027 elections, deepening concerns that the leadership’s top-down approach and internal tensions are catching up with it.
In a politically revealing shift, two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra from Sanaur and Chetan Singh Jouramajra from Samana, have resigned from the Punjab assembly. Their departures came soon after AAP released its first list of 40 candidates for the 2027 assembly elections, a move that appears to have exposed growing strain inside the party.
Pathanmajra’s exit follows a long-running clash with party leadership over multiple issues, including the government’s response to flooding and criminal cases filed against him. Jouramajra’s resignation has raised even more questions about the party’s internal functioning, especially after he came under scrutiny when former Shiromani Akali Dal leader Surjit Singh Rakhra joined AAP and was given a prominent role in Samana, widely seen as a decision that sidelined the local MLA.
The AAP candidate list, announced by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, includes re-nominations for 40 MLAs, with Mann himself contesting from Dhuri. Notably, jailed Cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora is set to run from Ludhiana West. The list also includes four women MLAs representing different constituencies. Mann said the early announcement shows the party is prepared and confident in its governance, though the resignations suggest a party under real internal pressure.