The list contains names of some significant faces in the Aam Aadmi Party which were announced by AAP national general secretary Dr Sandeep Pathak.
The Aam Aadmi Party released its list of eight candidates on March 14, 2024, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Out of these candidates, five were nominated for the cabinet ministers for the upcoming polls.
The names were announced on Thursday after the launch of the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Punjab on March 11, Monday. These names include some significant faces of the party like:
. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, NRI affairs minister from Amritsar
. Laljit Singh Bhullar, transport minister from Khadoor Sahib
. Sushil Kumar Rinku, sitting MP from Jalandhar
. Gurmeet Singh Khudian from Bathinda
. Dr Balbir Singh, health minister from Patiala
. Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, sports and youth affairs minister from Sangrur
. Karamjeet Anmol from Faridkot
. Gurpreet Singh GP, former MLA from Fatehgarh Sahib
Punjab holds 13 seats in Lok Sabha and AAP only has one MP from the party. Gurmeet Singh Hayer is nominated from the same seat which was won by chief minister Bhagwant Mann in 2024 and 2019 but lost in the 2022 by-polls.
After Arvind Kejriwal launched the party’s first campaign in Mohali, he requested the people to support them in winning all the 13 Lok Sabha seats for a ‘Rangla’ state. While adding that winning the seats is crucial not only for the party but for the people of Punjab as well. He also announced that the party should win a total number of 14 seats (one from Chandigarh) to work for the betterment of the people of Punjab.
The list also includes some new faces for the nomination. Former Congress MLA Gurpreet Singh GP was nominated after he joined the party last week while Rinku had also joined the party after leaving Congress last year.
Even though the party is a part of the INDIA alliance in other states, the party will contest elections against Congress in Punjab. After the alliance with INDIA, AAP was able to win 2 seats in Gujarat and one in Haryana and in Goa, the party has decided to support the Congress candidate, along with Delhi.
Out of the 13 seats in Punjab, four seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. AAP became the first party to announce their candidates for the upcoming elections in the state. The other parties are yet to reveal the names for Punjab. AAP’s campaign slogan for Punjab is “Sansad ch vee Bhagwant Mann, Khushaal Punjab te vadhegi shaan”.
