Chandigarh : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will not be declaring its chief ministerial candidate before the assembly elections in Punjab.
Party’s state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich said on Thursday that the elected legislators of the party will choose their leader after the polls. Waraich was addressing a press conference here this afternoon.
Contrasting the political scenario in the state from that in Goa, where the party has declared the CM candidate, Waraich said: “In Goa, the assembly is very small and most AAP candidates there had already shown their willingness to have one person as their leader before the polls. The name of Elvis Gomes was declared following a consensus among them. However in Punjab, 117 candidates are in the fray. So the party has decided to wait for the results.”
Reiterating that the party will only chose a Punjabi as the CM, Waraich said: “It is only the opposition that keeps raising the question repeatedly. Within the party there is complete clarity on the issue.”
The Punjab AAP convener said the party is finalising its final list of candidates, and it will be out by the end of next week. On speculations about singer-actor Harbhajan Mann being fielded from SAS Nagar (the seat vacated by Himmat Singh Shergill to contest from Majitha), Waraich said all decisions regarding ticket allocation are taken by the central leadership.
On a 2014 video clip in which he is heard praising Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for the anti- drug drive during a function, Waraich said he was just anchoring a scripted show. “I am an artiste and I have to follow the script. Also the conditions in Punjab at that time were not this bad,” he said.