AAP has a tough time finding suitable candidates for 4 seats in Punjab

Party sources said Anmol, who belongs to Sangrur, is considered an “outsider” in Faridkot, an SC-reserved constituency, despite that the party did not field him from Sangrur, because it’s a general seat.

The party can field another Congress turncoat and Hoshiarpur MLA Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal on the Hoshiarpur parliamentary seat.

But the party is facing a tough challenge to find suitable candidates for the other four constituencies of Gurdaspur, Anandpur Sahib, Ludhiana and Ferozepur even 10 years after it first contested the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab in 2014, winning four seats, and won the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections, winning 92 out of 117 seats.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party had given a ticket to Peter Masih from Gurdaspur, Dr Ravjot Singh from Hoshiarpur, Narinder Singh Shergill from Anandpur Sahib and Harjinder Singh Kaka from Ferozepur, but they lost.

This time, however, AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang is lobbying for the Anandpur Sahib ticket, while another spokesperson Deepak Bali is also among the frontrunners for this ticket, party sources said. It is learnt the party is unable to choose between a Hindu and a Sikh candidate. In Anandpur Sahib, the party is conducting a telephonic survey for Deepak Bali, Malvinder Kang and Narinder Shergill.

In Ludhiana, the party wanted to field industrialist and Rajya Sabha member Sanjiv Arora, but he is learnt to have refused. Sources said the party returned to the drawing board and is getting surveys done again.

In Gurdaspur, the party is unable to find a suitable candidate. Most of the Assembly segments in Gurdaspur are represented by the BJP and the Congress — Naresh Puri of Congress from Sujanpur, Ashwani Sharma of BJP from Pathankot, Aruna Chaudhary of Congress from Dina Nagar, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa of Congress from Fatehgarh Churian, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa of Congress from Dera Baba Nanak and Barindermeet Singh Pahda of Congress from Gurdaspur.

Cabinet minister Lal Chand Kataruchak represents the Bhoa reserve segment, and the party doesn’t want to field him from Gurdaspur, which is a general constituency, sources said.

Similarly, in Ferozepur, the party has been looking for a Rai Sikh, but Jalalabad MLA Jagdeep Singh Kamboj is being considered.