The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday, November 12, released its second list of 31 candidates for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, denying tickets to a serving minister and a former minister, fielding two of its sitting Lok Sabha MPs and picking 25 newcomers. With this announcement, the ruling party has now declared candidates for 71 of Punjab's 117 Assembly seats.

Source: The Punjab Standard

The biggest change is in Lambi. Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, who defeated former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi in 2022, has not been given the seat again. The party has fielded his nephew Randhir Singh Dhira Khuddian, chairman of the Punjab State Container Warehousing Corporation, from Lambi instead. Khuddian's name does not appear on either of AAP's two lists so far.

Former minister Anmol Gagan Maan has been dropped from Kharar, where Parminder Singh Goldy will now contest. In all, eight sitting MLAs have been replaced in the second list. The others dropped include Dr Charanjit Singh from Chamkaur Sahib — who defeated then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in 2022 — Raman Arora from Jalandhar Central, Amit Rattan Kotfatta from Bathinda Rural and Kulwant Singh Bazigar from Shutrana.

31candidates named in AAP's second list on November 12
71 of 117Punjab Assembly seats where AAP has now declared candidates
8sitting MLAs replaced in the second list
25newcomers among the 31 names
46seats where AAP is yet to name a candidate

Two MPs return to Assembly contests

Two sitting MPs will contest the Assembly polls. Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer returns to Barnala, his old Assembly seat, which the Congress won in the 2024 bypoll. Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal will contest from Phagwara. Only two sitting MLAs were renominated in this list: Saravjit Kaur Manuke from Jagraon and Amandeep Singh Goldy Musafir from Balluana.

Source: The Unmute

Three candidates who lost in 2022 get another chance: Raman Bahl in Gurdaspur, Shamsher Singh in Dina Nagar and Dr KNS Kang in Dakha. AAP lost 20 of these 31 seats in 2022, and reports put nominees in 21 constituencies that the party did not win last time, underlining that this list is aimed largely at seats the party still has to capture.

Turncoats, city faces and the full picture

Several leaders who crossed over from rival parties have been rewarded with tickets: former Akali MLAs Pawan Kumar Tinu (Adampur) and Vaninder Kaur Loomba (Shutrana), former Akali leader Talbir Singh Gill (Majitha), former BSP state chief Jasvir Singh Garhi (Chamkaur Sahib) and former BJP leader Swaran Singh Salaria (Sujanpur). Actress Sonia Mann will contest from Raja Sansi, one of four women nominees in the list alongside Saravjit Kaur Manuke, Vaninder Kaur Loomba and Harjot Kaur Lohtia from Phillaur.

Source: National Times

In Jalandhar, Mayor Vaneet Dhir gets Jalandhar North, industrialist Nitin Kohli gets Jalandhar Central and party general secretary Deepak Bali gets Jalandhar Cantonment. Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman Karamjit Singh Rintu takes Amritsar North, the seat that fell vacant after Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh resigned and joined the BJP. In Patti, former wrestler Jaskanwar Singh Gill, known as Jassa Patti, replaces jailed former minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, who announced on Tuesday that he would not contest. Retired PCS officer Gopal Singh gets Bathinda Rural.

The rest of the 31 are: Rohit Syal (Pathankot), Guriqbal Singh Mahal (Qadian), Harjobanjit Singh Randhawa (Fatehgarh Churian), Harsimran Singh (Bholath), Davinder Pal Singh Ranga (Kapurthala), Balvir Singh Pala Jalalpur (Shahkot), Sarabjot Singh Saabi (Mukerian), Robby Kang (Nawan Shahr) and Dr Suhani Doda (Abohar). The official announcement, signed by AAP national secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta, was released after a meeting of the party's Political Affairs Committee, according to reports.

Background and what happens next

AAP won 92 of Punjab's 117 seats in the 2022 elections and formed the government under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Its first list of 40 candidates, released on October 31, contained only sitting MLAs, with Mann named again from Dhuri. The second list breaks that pattern: sitting legislators have been dropped, MPs drafted in and newcomers and turncoats given a large share, in seats the party mostly did not win in 2022.

AAP is yet to name candidates for the remaining 46 seats. Attention will now turn to whether the dropped MLAs, including a cabinet minister, accept the decisions quietly, and to the candidate announcements still awaited from the Congress, the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal. No reaction from the dropped leaders or from opposition parties had been reported at the time of publishing; Awaaz Punjab will update this story as responses come in.