The Aam Aadmi Party has announced its first list of 40 candidates for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, renominating all of them from their existing constituencies and retaining Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri. The list also names jailed minister Sanjeev Arora as its candidate from Ludhiana West.
The announcement was made after a meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee in New Delhi. Punjab Assembly elections are due in February 2027. Mann said the early release of the list would give candidates more time to reach voters.
Arora is the only serving minister included in the first list. He has been in judicial custody since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in May 2026 and is lodged in Bhondsi jail in Gurgaon. He continues to hold cabinet minister rank but does not have a portfolio.
AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia defended Arora’s renomination, crediting him with bringing substantial investments to the state during his tenure as industries minister. Sisodia also alleged that the BJP had him arrested in what he described as “fake cases”. The allegation was included in the party’s defence of its decision to field Arora.
Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema and industries minister Aman Arora, who is also the party’s state president, do not feature in the list. Their exclusion drew criticism from opposition leaders, including former Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa. Warring claimed the list was intended to prevent sitting MLAs from leaving the party, while Bajwa said AAP could later replace many of the announced candidates.
The list includes Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura and four women candidates: Inderjit Kaur Mann from Nakodar, Santosh Kataria from Balachaur, Amandeep Kaur Arora from Moga and Baljinder Kaur from Talwandi Sabo. It also includes three AAP candidates who defeated prominent political figures in the 2022 election: Ajitpal Singh Kohli from Patiala, Labh Singh Ugoke from Bhadaur and Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy from Jalalabad.
Of the 40 candidates, 37 won the 2022 Assembly elections, while three entered the Assembly through bypolls. Five are second-term MLAs who won in both 2017 and 2022. The list has 27 candidates from the Malwa region, eight from Doaba and five from Majha. Seven candidates have been fielded from Scheduled Caste-reserved constituencies: Kartarpur, Chabbewal, Payal, Nihal Singh Wala, Jaitu, Bhadaur and Mehal Kalan.
AAP won 92 of Punjab’s 117 Assembly seats in 2022. Mann said the party would introduce fresh faces in subsequent candidate lists. The remaining nominations are expected to be announced later as the party prepares for the February 2027 polls.
