AAP names candidates

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

The Aam Aadmi Party today announced its candidates for the byelections to four Assembly seats. Amandeep Singh Mohie will be contesting on Dakha seat from where former AAP MLA HS Phoolka had resigned.

A decision on the candidates to be fielded by the party was taken at a meeting of the core committee held this afternoon under the chairmanship of state AAP president Bhagwant Mann. The core committee also gave the go-ahead to fielding Gurdhian Singh Multani from Mukerian, Mohinder Singh Kachura from Jalalabad and Santosh Kumar Gogi from Phagwara. All four candidates are political greenhorns, though part of the party’s organisational structure.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Mann said the decision had been conveyed to the Political Affairs Committee of the party in Delhi which had okayed all four candidatures. Exuding confidence that these bypolls will usher in a comeback by the party, which lost considerable vote share in the general elections held earlier this year, the Sangrur MP said all party MLAs and core committee members had been made in-charge of the four seats, and would begin with their campaign now.

“We will contest the byelections on the issues of unemployment, daily “pani tanki protests” by aggrieved Punjabis and farmer suicides. We are the main Opposition party in Punjab and will be going to masses, asking them to judge us based on our performance in the Assembly here and by the AAP government in Delhi,” he said.

Asked if rebel groups in the party were now firmly behind him as he went in the election mode, Bhagwant Mann said other than “Khaira (Sukhpal Singh) te Sandhu (Kanwar Sandhu) nu chadd ke, baki saare sadde naal hun” (other than Khaira and Sandhu, all other MLAs are with us).

When Mann was grilled specifically about Aman Arora going on a different tangent, the latter, who was also present at the meeting, said he was a loyal soldier of the party.

Bhagwant Mann’s go-to man

Mohinder Singh Kachura (34), contesting from Jalalabad, is a close aide of Bhagwant Mann. Kachura was his go-to man when Mann contested the Jalalabad election in 2017. 

Halqa in charge gets Dakha seat

Amandeep Singh Mohie, Dakha contestant, was MLA Saravjit Kaur Manuke’s campaign manager in 2017 poll. A diploma holder in electronic communications, he is party’s halqa in-charge for Dakha.

Theatre, RTI activist in fray

Santosh Kumar Gogi, contesting from Phagwara, is an RTI activist. He has been with AAP since the party was floated. He participated in Anna Hazare’s movement. He is also active in theatre.

Educationist takes plunge

Gurdhian Singh Multani (55), Mukerian contestant, is an educationist. At present, he is director of a school in Mukerian. He has been party halqa in charge of Mukerian since 2017.

Independent files papers from Dakha  

Chandigarh: Independent candidate Jai Parkash Jain today filed nomination papers for the bypoll of Dakha Assembly constituency. While for Phagwara, Mukerian and Jalalabad Assembly constituencies, no one turned up on the third day of the filing of the nomination papers. An officer of Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, said September 28 and 29 would be a holiday on account of fourth Saturday and Sunday, respectively, under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Therefore, nomination papers couldn't be presented to the Returning Officer on both days. TNS