The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced three more candidates for the Punjab elections, releasing its 10th list on Sunday.
Joginder Singh Mann, a former MLA who switched from the Congress to AAP yesterday, has been fielded from the Phagwara seat.
A leader from the Scheduled Caste community, Mr Mann was upset with the Congress over alleged inaction against those behind a scholarship scam and a long-pending demand to make Phagwara a district.
He resigned from the Congress and as the chairman of Punjab Agro Industries Corporation. In a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the three-time MLA from Phagwara, who served as a minister in the Cabinets including those of Beant Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Amarinder Singh, said he had a dream that he would die as a Congressman.
But with Congress patronising the guilty of the post-matric scholarship scheme, my conscience doesn't allow me to stay here," he said.
AAP leader and Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha said that Mr Mann's induction will give a huge boost to the party in the state.
"Inspired by Arvind ji's vision, Punjab's former cabinet minister and three-time MLA Joginder Singh Mann ji joins AAP ending his 50-year-old association with Congress. He was presently chairman of Punjab Agro Industries Corp."
"His induction will give a huge boost to the party's unit in Punjab," Mr Chadha said in a tweet and also posted a photo showing Mann joining the AAP in the presence of the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal.
Voting for Punjab's 117 assembly seats will be held on February 14 and the results will be declared on March 10.
