Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday, October 31 released its first list of 40 candidates for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, becoming the first political party in the state to declare its nominees for the polls due by February 2027. The announcement is dated October 31 and has been issued by Pankaj Kumar Gupta, National Secretary of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Source: Public Bytes News

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has been named the party's candidate from the Dhuri Assembly constituency (AC No. 107) — the seat he currently represents — confirming he will seek re-election from Dhuri, NDTV reported.

Source: NDTV via Inshorts

40Candidates in the first list
117Total Punjab Assembly seats
94AAP MLAs in the current Assembly
107Dhuri constituency number (CM Mann)

Senior leaders named in the first list

Other prominent names in the first list include Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura, Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar from Muktsar, Amolak Singh from Jaitu, Narinderpal Singh Sawna from Fazilka and Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana West, according to the party's announcement. The list also covers candidates for Batala, Amritsar South, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Moga, Jalalabad and Patiala, among other constituencies, spanning 40 seats across the Malwa, Majha and Doaba regions.

A day after Mann promised the list for Saturday

The release follows the development reported a day earlier: after a meeting of the party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) at national convenor Arvind Kejriwal's residence in Delhi on Friday, Mann had told reporters the first list would be released on Saturday after the PAC met again. Friday's discussion had focused on candidates for all 117 seats, and reports had expected a smaller first list of around 15 names — the actual rollout of 40 names is larger than originally anticipated, Inshorts noted.

AAP currently holds 94 of the 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly, having won 92 seats in the 2022 elections. The Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP have not yet announced any candidates for 2027, and naming its first 40 nominees months ahead of the polls gives the ruling party an early start on constituency-level campaigning. The current Assembly's term ends on March 16, 2027.

Source: Jugti (background)