Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which started its anti corruption & anti repression crusade three years ago from Delhi is all set to announce its first list of 23 candidates for the Punjab assembly polls scheduled in 2017.The AAP will soon make the first list public once it received the final nod from the Political Affairs Committee (PAC). AAP's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal heads the PAC while Faridkot MP, Prof Sadhu Singh & Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann are its members. According to the official spokesman AAP volunteers have recommended nearly 500 names of the probables from 23 assembly segments after gauging their track record in public life and their months of dedicated work for the party as well as for the people of Punjab.The names recommended by AAP's volunteers were thereafter sent to the 16 member Punjab Election Campaign Committee for deliberations in the meeting held last evening in Chandigarh.
The campaign committee has already forwarded the list of recommendations to the AAP's screening committee of Punjab.The screening committee which met early morning on Sundayincluded AAP's national spokesperson, Sanjay Singh, Sangrur MP, Bhagwant Mann, Faridkot MP, Prof Sadhu Singh, Punjab convener, Sucha Singh Chhotepur and national organisation building secretary, Durgesh Pathak to deliberate on the names forwarded by the campaign committee. During the meeting the screening committee kept utmost care of the fact that the probables must have a clean track record.The screening committee after weighing various pros and cons of the names recommended by the campaign committee has short listed nearly 130 names, on an average 5 to 7 from each constituency, before forwarding the same with its remarks to the PAC. According to the spokesman the PAC would soon take a final decision on the names of the candidates of 23 assembly segments. "Thereafter the party is likely to make the announcement of the candidates immediately", added the spokesman.