AAP announces all 13 candidates for Punjab, now others to open cards

LOK SABHA POLLS-2024

AAP announces all 13 candidates for Punjab, now others to open cards

Ferozepur, April 16, 2024:  With the announcement of remaining four candidates on Tuesday, by the Aam Aadmi Party for Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar (SC) and Ludhiana, Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar who represents the Muktsar assembly seat, is an AAP candidate from Ferozepur Lok Sabha Polls scheduled for June 1.  With this, the AAP has announced all the 13 candidates for Punjab and now others major political parties are likely to follow.

The major political parties – Congress, BJP and Akali Dall – who were in ‘wait and watch mode’ for choosing Ferozepur candidates, will also announce their candidates, making it easy for the voters to make up their find for the candidate of their choice.

In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Sukhbir Badal had won by a margin of 1,98,850 votes from Ferozepur against Sher Singh Ghubaya, who later on switched over to the Congress. In 2009 and 2014, Ghubaya won this seat as an Akali candidate.

The Ferozepur constituency comprises nine Assembly segments – Ferozepur Urban, Ferozepur Rural, Guruharsahai, Jalalabad, Fazilka, Balluana, Abohar, Malout and Muktsar. Except for Abohar, all 8 MLAs in the Ferozepur constituency belong to AAP.

In Lok Sabha elections, the candidate doesn’t need to be from the local main constituency as the polling trend in these polls goes to the credit of standing political parties.  In the case of Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar is from Muktsar as an AAP candidate for the Ferozepur constituency, he would have the upper hand being 8 MLAs of AAP in this constituency.  Even then, it will not depend upon the announcement of candidates by the other three major political parties.

The other deciding factor in this constituency is the population of Sikhs, Rai Sikhs, Kambojs and Hindus who had around 32 per cent of the total vote share and some politicians or individuals are trying to get the tickets.  Recently, the Arora-Khatri community has also come forward to participate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

So far as SAD is concerned, Sukhbir Badal, MP and SAD chief reportedly have decided not to contest this time and is feeling tough for a suitable replacement. Congress too is working to make a final choice over a new face or fielding a caste-based candidate. The BJP is still on the slow mode, perhaps looking for SAD and Congress to announce first.

Now other parties – Congress, SAD and BJP will open their cards, for political analysts to make up their minds on the outcome of the final polls. With this announcement, the AAP has declared candidates for all 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab.