Lok Sabha polls: AAP fields turncoat Pawan Kumar Tinu,three MLAs in its final list

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday announced the names of party candidates for the remaining four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, replacing its turncoat MP, who left the party high and dry by defecting to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with another turncoat in Jalandhar and fielding three sitting MLAs from Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, and Ferozepur.

The party has fielded two-time former MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu from Jalandhar reserved seat, Batala MLA Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi from Gurdaspur, Muktsar MLA Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar from Ferozepur, and Ludhiana Central MLA Ashok Parashar Pappi from Ludhiana.

The third list of candidates, announced by AAP’s national general secretary (organisation) Dr Sandeep Pathak, completes the line-up for the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab, making it the first frontline political party to name all its nominees in the state for the June 1 election followed by the BJP with nine candidates, SAD seven and the Congress six. There is no woman candidate on the AAP list of nominees in the state.

Tinu takes number of turncoats to three

The candidature of Tinu, a prominent Dalit leader, was on expected lines after he switched sides to the AAP from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on April 14. Tinu’s name has been declared in place of Jalandhar’s sitting MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, who was fielded by the party from the same seat on March 14 but switched to the BJP on March 27.

Tinu will take on Rinku, who is now the BJP’s nominee in Jalandhar, and Congress candidate and ex-chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi. SAD is still to name its candidate. Rinku was also a turncoat as he had joined the AAP from the Congress in April 2023 ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll. The AAP list of nominees features two more turncoats – Gurpreet Singh GP from Fatehgarh Sahib (reserved seat) and Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal from Hoshiarpur (reserved). Both GP and Chabbewal joined the AAP from the Congress last month.

Ashok Parashar Pappi, who has been given the AAP ticket from Ludhiana, is the lone Hindu face fielded by the party. The first-time MLA is pitted against three-time MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, the grandson of slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. Bittu recently defected from the Congress to the BJP. The Congress and SAD are still to name their candidates.

Like Pappi, Sherry Kalsi and Kaka Brar are also first-time legislators. In Gurdaspur, Sherry Kalsi will fight the poll battle against Dinesh Babbu of BJP and Daljit Singh Cheema of SAD whereas the Congress is still to name its candidate. He faces an uphill task in Gurdaspur as the AAP won only two of the nine assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat despite its massive sweep in the 2022 state polls. Kaka Brar is in the fray from Ferozepur, where other major parties, including the Congress, SAD, and BJP, have not announced the names of their candidates so far.

5 ministers, 4 sitting MLAs fielded

With these three, the total number of sitting MLAs fielded by the AAP has gone to nine, including five cabinet ministers. The ministers in the fray include NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal from Amritsar, transport minister Laljit Bhullar from Khadoor Sahib, sports minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer from Sangrur, agriculture minister Gurmeet Khudian from Bathinda, and health minister Dr Balbir Singh from Patiala. Those who win will have to resign from the state assembly, necessitating byelections. Hoshiarpur candidate Dr Raj Kumar, who is MLA from Chabbewal, resigned from the state assembly before joining the AAP, but his resignation is yet to be accepted. The AAP has fielded its Punjab unit chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang from Anandpur Sahib and Punjabi actor Karamjit Anmol from Faridkot.

Know the AAP candidates

Pawan Kumar Tinu, 57, Jalandhar (reserved)

A prominent Dalit leader of Doaba region, he is a former chief parliamentary secretary and a two-time MLA. He joined the AAP on Sunday. Tinu started his political career with the Bahujan Samaj Party before switching to SAD and then got elected to the state assembly from Adampur in 2012 and 2017. He also unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Jalandhar on the SAD ticket.

Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi, 36, Gurdaspur

A first-time MLA from Batala, Sherry Kalsi is also the state vice president of the AAP. The young lawmaker has been quite active in his assembly constituency but faces an uphill task in Gurdaspur. Of the nine assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat, the AAP was able to win only two, including Batala, in the 2022 state polls despite its historic triumph in the state.

Ashok Parashar Pappi, 59, Ludhiana

The Ludhiana Central MLA is the lone Hindu face fielded by the party. He is a former Congressman and has been in and out of AAP. Pappi, who unsuccessfully contested from Ludhiana South in 2012 as the Congress candidate, joined the AAP in 2016 but returned to Congress a few months later. He again joined the AAP in October 2021 and won his seat by 4,900 votes. He is a class 7 dropout.

Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar, 57, Ferozepur

An under-matric, he is a first-time legislator from Muktsar and became the state vice president of AAP in June 2023. Brar, who also served as a municipal councillor twice, was inspired by his elder sister Gurpreet Kaur, who was part of the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare, to join the AAP. He unsuccessfully contested the assembly election from Muktsar seat in 2017 as the AAP nominee but won in 2022.