AAP announces 13 more candidates for Punjab election

Amritsar, Aug 18 (IANS) With the announcement of the names of its candidates for 13 more assembly seats on Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced 32 candidates for the 117 assembly seats in Punjab which is slated to go to the polls early next year.

AAP in-charge for Punjab Sanjay Singh and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann announced the names of the candidates here on Thursday.

The names included the AAP women wing chief Baljinder Kaur for the Talwandi Sabo seat and former Congress leader Aman Arora for the Sunam seat. Arora is the son of a former Congress minister.

Six of the candidates announced in the new list are for reserved (scheduled caste) seats.

The AAP had announced its first list of 19 candidates on August 4. Prominent among those was lawyer-activist H.S. Phoolka.

The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and its alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have not announced any candidate so far.

The main opposition Congress is also yet to announce its candidates.

The AAP is likely to pose a tough challenge to the Akali Dal-BJP combine and the Congress in the forthcoming assembly polls. The election for most seats is going to be triangular this time.