NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party will announce on Saturday its first list of candidates for the Punjab Assembly elections, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said after a meeting with party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on Friday, PTI reported.

Source: PTI via Daily World

Mann, who was filmed speaking to reporters in New Delhi after the meeting, said many candidate names had been discussed, that surveys and feedback from party workers had been considered, and that the first list would be released on Saturday after finalisation. The meeting was held at Kapurthala House, the Punjab government's official residence in the capital.

The Delhi meeting had been scheduled as the party's key candidate-selection sitting for the Punjab polls, with Kejriwal, Mann and other senior leaders expected to deliberate on prospective nominees and election strategy, according to reports published on Thursday. Those reports had suggested the first list might come before November 15; Friday's announcement brings that forward to October 31.

Source: Punjab E News

Punjabi news channels reported that the meeting also reviewed the performance of sitting MLAs and that some could be denied tickets. Those are channel reports of the deliberations; the party has not published any names, and no candidate should be treated as confirmed until the list is released on Saturday.

Punjab's 117-seat Assembly election is due by February 2027. AAP, which won 92 seats in 2022, is the first of the state's major parties to set a date for releasing its opening candidate list. Congress is due to launch its campaign phase with Rahul Gandhi's rally in Sangrur on November 4, while the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal have stepped up their own campaigns on law and order and an early poll code.