Key points
- AAP named 31 more candidates for the 2027 Punjab Assembly election, taking its total to 71 of 117 seats.
- Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian lost the Lambi ticket to his nephew Randhir Singh Dhira Khuddian.
- Two sitting MPs, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and Raj Kumar Chabbewal, were given Assembly tickets in Barnala and Phagwara.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday, November 12, named 31 more candidates for the 2027 Punjab Assembly election, dropping agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian and giving Assembly tickets to two of its sitting MPs. With the new list, announced in Delhi by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann after a meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee, AAP has declared 71 of the state’s 117 seats.
The list was issued by AAP national secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta. It follows the party’s first list of 40 names on October 31, in which every sitting MLA was renominated.
Who was dropped
The biggest change is in Lambi, in Muktsar district. Khuddian, who won the seat in 2022 by defeating former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, was replaced by his nephew, Randhir Singh Dhira Khuddian, the chairman of the Punjab State Container and Warehousing Corporation. The agriculture minister is reported to have had a public argument in May with senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia over candidates for Bathinda civic bodies.
At least five other sitting MLAs were replaced, according to the party’s list:
- Jalandhar Central: Raman Arora gives way to industrialist Nitin Kohli, who joined AAP in May 2025. Arora was reported to have been arrested by the Vigilance Bureau in a corruption case last year.
- Kharar: Anmol Gagan Maan, dropped from the Cabinet in September 2024, is replaced by the constituency in-charge, Parminder Singh Goldy.
- Chamkaur Sahib: Charanjit Singh is replaced by Jasvir Singh Garhi, a former chairman of the Punjab Scheduled Castes Commission.
- Bathinda Rural: Amit Rattan Kotfatta, reported to have been arrested by the Vigilance Bureau in a 2023 bribery case, is replaced by Gopal Singh.
- Patti: Laljit Singh Bhullar, who is reported to be in jail in a case linked to the suicide of a warehousing corporation official, is replaced by Jaskanwar Singh Gill. Bhullar had said in a Facebook post on November 10 that he would not contest.
Two MPs move to the Assembly
AAP also turned to two of its Lok Sabha members. Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, the Sangrur MP, will contest from Barnala, the seat he held before entering Parliament. Congress won Barnala in the 2024 by-election. Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, a sitting MP, is the candidate from Phagwara.
Other names in the list include Sarvjit Kaur Manuke in Jagraon, Amandeep Singh Goldy Musafir in Balluana and Dr K N S Kang in Dakha, all of whom contested in 2022 on AAP tickets. Sonia Mann, a Punjabi actress who joined AAP last year, will contest from Raja Sansi. Swaran Salaria, who moved to AAP from the BJP in 2024, is the candidate in Sujanpur.
Karamjit Singh Rintu is the candidate in Amritsar North. The seat fell vacant this month when Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, a suspended AAP MLA, resigned from the Assembly and joined the BJP.
Several candidates come from other parties
Six of the 31 names contested the 2022 election on tickets of other parties. They include Guriqbal Singh Mahal in Qadian, Talbir Singh Gill in Majitha, Pawan Kumar Tinu in Adampur, Jasvir Singh Garhi in Chamkaur Sahib and Vaninder Kaur Loomba in Shutrana. Loomba is a former Akali Dal MLA.
The list also covers Gurdaspur (Raman Bahl), Dina Nagar (Shamsher Singh), Pathankot (Rohit Syal), Kapurthala (Davinder Pal Singh Ranga), Phillaur (Harjot Kaur Lohtia), Jalandhar North (Vaneet Dhir), Jalandhar Cantt (Deepak Bali), Mukerian (Sarabjot Singh Saabi), Nawan Shahr (Robby Kang) and Abohar (Dr Suhani Doda).
What Mann said
Mann said tickets had gone to long-serving party workers, and that several new faces had also been given a chance. “Here, neither recommendations nor requests work,” he said. “We have identified volunteers who have been working hard for the party.”
The party said the Political Affairs Committee had gone through public feedback and survey reports on possible candidates through the day before finalising the names. Mann said the candidates would now have more time to reach voters and explain the party’s policies and programmes.
Where the party stands
AAP swept Punjab in 2022, winning 92 of 117 seats. Its first list of 40 names came two days before three rebel MLAs, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Chetan Singh Jouramajra and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, joined the BJP on November 2. One of them predicted that more AAP legislators already named as candidates might give up their tickets and cross over.
The second list leaves 46 seats still to be announced. Neither Samana nor Sanour, the seats held by Jouramajra and Pathanmajra, is among the 31 names reported so far. No date has been given for the next list. The election is due in early 2027.
None of the legislators who lost their tickets had commented publicly when the list was released, apart from Bhullar’s earlier post. Opposition parties had not responded on the record at the time of writing.