AAP CM candidate for Punjab will be from Sikh community, announces Kejriwal

Ahead of the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party's chief ministerial candidate for Punjab will be from the Sikh community.

"Aam Aadmi Party's CM candidate for Punjab will be from the Sikh community. It is the right of the Sikh community. The face of the Chief Minister will be discussed later, but whosoever he will be, Punjab will be proud of that person," Kejriwal told reporters here.

In a boost to the AAP in Punjab ahead of Assembly elections slated for next year, former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh on Monday joined the outfit in presence of Kejriwal in Amritsar.

"Kunwar Vijay Pratap is not a politician. He was called 'aam aadmi ka policewala'. We all are here to serve the nation. With this sentiment, he has joined the party today," said Kejriwal after induction of the former IPS officer in the AAP.

"I want to assure the people of Punjab that AAP will make sure that culprits in the Bargari sacrilege case will be punished and justice is served," said Kejriwal in Amritsar.

Former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh was part of the SIT probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident in Punjab.

In 2017 Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years. Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.