Punjab CM: AAP to announce candidates for Jalandhar, Ludhiana on April 16

AAP will announce its candidates for the Jalandhar and the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seats in Punjab on April 16, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said on Wednesday.

"Candidates for Jalandhar and Ludhiana will be announced on April 16," Mann, the AAP's Punjab unit chief, said in a post on X.

The party has so far declared candidates for Hoshiarpur, Anandpur Sahib, Sangrur, Amritsar, Patiala, Khadoor Sahib, Bathinda, Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab.

In its first list, AAP had named incumbent MP Sushil Rinku from Jalandhar. However, he later quit the party and joined the BJP.

Rinku is now the BJP's candidate from Jalandhar.

While the Congress is yet to name its candidate from Jalandhar, the name of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi is doing the rounds as a possible nominee.

From Ludhiana, the BJP has announced Ravneet Sigh Bittu as its candidate. Bittu, the incumbent MP from the seat, left the Congress to join the saffron party.

AAP, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, is contesting the parliamentary polls independently in Punjab.

Polling for Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats will be held in the last phase on June 1.