DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said his party AAP will announce the names of candidates for the remaining five Lok Sabha seats in next five days. The Aam Aadmi Party has already announced eight candidates. Polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held on June 1.

In a post on X, Mann said, "In the next five days, the candidates for the remaining five Lok Sabha seats will be announced by the AAP." AAP is yet to announce its candidates from Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Anandpur Sahib.

AAP was the first one among all political parties in the state that announced the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

In its first list of candidates, the AAP fielded five cabinet ministers; Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Amritsar, Laljit Singh Bhullar from Khadoor Sahib, Gurmeet Singh Khudian from Bathinda, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer from Sangrur and Dr Balbir Singh from Patiala.

Sitting Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku has been named as the party's candidate again from the seat.

Gurpreet Singh GP has been fielded from Fatehgarh Sahib seat and actor-singer Karamjeet Anmol is the party candidate from Faridkot seat. The AAP, which is a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, is contesting the parliamentary polls on its own in Punjab.

Meanwhile, Bhagwant Mann on Thursday held a meeting with AAP MLAs and leaders in Bathinda and asked them to ensure the victory of party candidate Gurmeet Singh Khudian in the Lok Sabha polls.

Khudian, who is a cabinet minister, has been fielded from the Bathinda seat which is presently represented by Akali MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Mann, who is also the president of the AAP's Punjab unit, asked the party leaders to inform the people about the work undertaken by the state government in the last two years.

Mann expressed confidence that the Aam Aadmi Party will win the Bathinda seat. "Our government in Punjab has worked tirelessly in the past two years. People have seen our work and they are with us," said Mann.
(editor@dailyworld.in)