AAP retains 2 sitting MPs — Bhagwant Mann and Prof Sadhu Singh — but does not name candidates in the 2 other seats where its MPs have turned rebels.
Chandigarh: The faction-ridden Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has become the first political outfit in Punjab to announce candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a press conference Tuesday afternoon, the party’s core committee chairman Budh Ram announced candidates for five of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
While the party has retained two of its sitting MPs — Bhagwant Mann and Prof Sadhu Singh — it has not named candidates in the two other Lok Sabha seats where its sitting MPs have turned rebels.
The announcement also comes amid reconciliatory talks with a breakaway AAP faction led by former Punjab leader of the opposition Sukhpal Khaira, prompting the rebels to hit out at the party.
The two groups had held a meeting on 23 October but failed to reach a consensus. It was decided that the leaders would meet again.
It was also expected that a united AAP would finalise candidates for the Lok Sabha polls only in December.
Reacting to the decision, Khaira called a press conference of his own and did not rule out the possibility of the rebels declaring a list of their own.
“This only shows that the other side is not keen on a patch up. They have in fact closed all possibilities of a rapprochement,” he said.
“We had earlier given them an ultimatum till 1 November, which we are now extending till 9 November. If the party does not agree to abide by the resolutions passed in the Bathinda convention, we will start setting up our own structure in villages and towns,” he added.
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The first five
The party has retained MP Bhagwant Mann in his constituency of Sangrur. Mann had decisively beaten then Congress MP Vijay Inder Singla in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The party has also decided to field Prof Sadhu Singh in his constituency of Faridkot. The two MPs had not broken ranks with the party’s Delhi unit.
The two other AAP MPs from Punjab, Dharmvira Gandhi from Patiala and Harinder Singh Khalsa from Fatehgarh Sahib, have turned dissidents. The party is yet to declare candidates from their seats.
Of the three other seats announced Tuesday, the party has decided to field Ravjot Singh, a doctor, from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat. Ravjot had contested the 2017 assembly polls from Sham Chaurasi, an assembly segment in Hoshiarpur, narrowly losing to the Congress’ Pawan Kumar.
Ravjot is an MD (medicine) from PGIMER, Chandigarh and runs a hospital in Model Town, Hoshiarpur. He also heads the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sena a philanthropic organisation.
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AAP’s Majha zonal in-charge, Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal, will contest from the Amritsar seat. Renowned eye surgeon Dr Daljit Singh was the party’s candidate here in the last Lok Sabha polls but he passed away in December 2017.
Depending largely on tried and tested candidates, AAP has chosen Narinder Singh Shergill to contest the Anandpur Sahib Parliamentary seat.
Shergill, 50, had contested the 2017 Assembly polls from Mohali but had lost to Congress’ Balbir Singh Sidhu by over 28,000 votes. A masters in Economics, Shergill was the sarpanch of Jhingran village in Kharar before he joined AAP in 2014.