Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday named Gurmail Singh, an AAP volunteer, as
the party's candidate for the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat bypoll, which will be held on June 23.
The seat fell vacant after Mann contested and won from Dhuri assembly seat in the 2022 state
elections.
Singh, a staunch worker of the party, joined AAP in 2013 and has been working industriously for
welfare of the state. He is an eminent environmentalist and has been running a plantation drive
since 2008. Gurmail held significant posts from the circle in-charge of the party to the district
in-charge. Currently, he is sarpanch of Gharachon village in Sangrur.
''Aam Aadmi Party's young volunteer and in-charge of Sangrur district Gurmail Singh will be the
party candidate for the June 23 bypoll to Sangrur seat,'' Mann said in a tweet. The incumbent
chief minister had won from the Sangrur parliamentary seat in 2014 and 2019.
The bypoll will be held on June 23 while the counting will take place on June 26.
The last date for filing the nominations is June 6. They will be scrutinised the next day and the
last date for the withdrawal of the candidatures is June 9.
AAP won all the 9 assembly seats in the Sangrur parliamentary segment in the 2022 assembly
polls. The seat had fallen vacant after CM Mann contested and won from Dhuri assembly
segment in the recently held assembly polls.
SAD FOR UNITY OF PANTHIC FORCES FOR BYPOLL
Meanwhile, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday welcomed the message given by
Akal Takth Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh to all panthic factions to unite and field a
common candidate from the families of ‘Bandi Singhs’ for the Sangrur Lok Sabha
parliamentary bypoll.
The SAD core committee, which met here under the leadership of party president
Sukhbir Singh Badal, while welcoming the statement of the Akal Takth Jathedar, said
the party was still striving for panthic unity. The core committee also appealed to all
panthic bodies to heed the appeal of Akal Takth Jathedar to field a common candidate
for the bypoll.
The core committee also took note of the lawlessness which was rife in the State. It said
the AAP government had failed to maintain law and order to such an extent that no one
was safe. “Civil society is living in fear of gangsters even as extortions, murders,
dacoities and targeted killings are occurring on an everyday basis”.
Briefing the committee, the SAD president said a delegation of the party had also met
the Punjab Governor to demand a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the
entire issue of withdrawal of security of prominent persons including Sidhu Moosewala
as well as subsequent publicity of this act. Badal told the committee that the party had
also demanded justice in the case besides the ouster of Bhagwant Mann as the home
minister.