AAP Drops Minister Khuddian And Six MLAs In 31-Seat Punjab Election Slate

Punjab's ruling Aam Aadmi Party unveiled its second slate of 31 candidates for the 2027 Assembly elections, stripping Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian of his ticket and purging multiple sitting lawmakers. The announcement lifts the party's declared contenders to 71 across the state's 117-seat assembly.

Party managers took an entirely different route this time. The first list of 40 nominees released on October 31 leaned exclusively on sitting legislators, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. But the second roster broke cleanly with incumbency. It pushed aside entrenched names to install grassroots workers, former civil servants, local council heads, and defectors from rival camps. The leadership signaled zero appetite for complacency.

The tactical recalibration followed sudden turbulence inside the legislative wing. Three sitting lawmakers walked out of the party shortly after the initial list went public. Those resignations forced party strategists back to the drawing board in Samana, Sanaur, and Amritsar North.

High-Profile Purges and the Lambi Upset

No omission landed with heavier shockwaves than Lambi. The party scrapped sitting lawmaker and Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, handing the nomination instead to Randhir Singh Dhira Khuddian. In 2022, the senior Khuddian etched his name into state electoral folklore by unseating five-time Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal. Yet past glory bought him no immunity. His ticket was wiped away without hesitation.

Cuts rippled across southern and central Punjab. In Chamkaur Sahib, sitting legislator Dr Charanjit Singh lost his seat to Jasvir Singh Garhi, the former Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission chairman. Garhi will square off against senior Congress adversary Charanjit Singh Channi.

Further south in Bathinda Rural, Amit Rattan Kotfatta was brushed aside in favor of retired PCS officer Gopal Singh. In Patti, former wrestler Jaskanwar Singh Gill—widely recognized as Jassa Patti—took the nomination in place of jailed former minister Laljit Singh Bhullar. Bhullar had declared just days earlier on Tuesday that he would not contest.

Kharar saw Parminder Singh Goldy step into the vacuum left by Anmol Gagan Maan, who walked away from her assembly seat in July 2025. In Jalandhar Central, the party brushed aside Raman Arora to install industrialist Nitin Kohli. In Amritsar North, former Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman Karamjit Singh Rintu stepped in following the abrupt defection of former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Deploying Lok Sabha MPs to Reclaim Lost Ground

Two sitting parliamentarians must now wage ground campaigns for assembly seats. Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer will contest his old stronghold of Barnala—a seat the party surrendered to the Congress during a bitter 2024 bypoll. Hayer's reassignment carries direct stakes. He must win it back.

Simultaneously, Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal received orders to contest Phagwara. The party calculation is clear: deploy tested federal winners to dislodge rivals in precarious assembly corridors.

The ax fell heavily on contenders who faltered during the 2022 assembly sweep. Rohit Syal replaced Vibhuti Sharma in Pathankot, Guriqbal Singh Mahal took over from Jagroop Singh Sekhwan in Qadian, and Joban Randhawa displaced Balbir Singh Pannu in Fatehgarh Churian. Only three defeated contenders from 2022 secured a reprieve: Raman Bahl in Gurdaspur, Shamsher Singh in Dina Nagar, and Dr KNS Kang in Dakha.

New Recruits, Bureaucrats, and Defectors on the Ballot

Outside the legislative corps, the party elevated local constituency managers and cultural figures. Actress Sonia Mann captured the nomination in Raja Sansi. Davinder Pal Singh Ranga secured Kapurthala, while Robby Kang took the ticket in Nawanshahr. In urban Jalandhar, municipal dominance drove selection: Mayor Vaneet Dhir claimed Jalandhar North, Nitin Kohli locked down Jalandhar Central, and party general secretary Deepak Bali secured Jalandhar Cantonment.

Turncoats from rival outfits collected prime real estate across the board. Former Akali legislators Pawan Kumar Tinu and Vaninder Kaur Loomba secured nominations in Adampur and Shutrana, respectively. Talbir Singh Gill, an Akali defector, bagged Majitha. Former Bahujan Samaj Party state chief Jasvir Singh Garhi secured Chamkaur Sahib, while former BJP leader Swaran Singh Salaria took Sujanpur.

Campaign teams in all 71 designated constituencies now move immediately into grassroots door-to-door drives, with party leadership scheduled to finalize the remaining 46 Punjab assembly nominations in subsequent screening rounds.