AAP announces first list of 19 candidates for 2017 Punjab polls

NEW DELHI: Senior lawyers H S Poolkha and Himmat Singh Shergill feature in Aam Aadmi Party's first list of candidates for Punjab Assembly polls as the party today announced names of 19 candidates for upcoming elections in the state. Phoolka to contest from Dakha (Ludhiana) and Himmat Singh Shergill from Mohali. Poolkha, who had unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls from Ludhiana on an AAP ticket, is one of the main legal brains in the party. The senior lawyer has led a campaign to get justice for 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims and could be a strong contender for being projected as the party's chief ministerial face. Shergill had also unsuccessfully contested on AAP ticket from Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency. Interestingly, the list is announced in the absence of party major Arvind Kejriwal, who is on a vipassana sojourn. AAP's Punjab co-convenor Durgesh Pathak is also away, attending a vipassana course. In releasing the list of candidates well ahead of the polling schedules being announced, the party intends to replicate the Delhi story. When it contested its maiden elections in the national capital in 2013, AAP had declared candidates way before the polling schedules were announced. Here is the full list: