Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Akali Dal Releases First List, Names 7 Candidates Including Daljeet Singh Cheema From Gurdaspur

New Delhi: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha Elections on Saturday. The party unveils candidates for seven of the 13 Lok Sabha seats. Party leader and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema stated that SAD chief Sukhbir Badal had nominated seven senior leaders as candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“Choosing the historic and pious occasion of ‘Khalsa Sirjana Divas’ as the most suited day to sound the poll bugle, he released the first list of candidates,” he wrote in a post on X.

According to the list, Daljit Singh Cheema will run in Gurdaspur, while Prem Singh Chandumajra will represent Anandpur Sahib. N.K. Sharma, a former Dera Bassi legislator, has been nominated for Patiala, and Anil Joshi, a former minister and BJP defector, will contest from Amritsar. For Fatehgarh Sahib, Bikramjit Singh Khalsa has been chosen, while Rajwinder Singh, grandson of Gurdev Singh Badal, will contest from the Faridkot seat. Iqbal Singh Jhoonda has been named as the party's candidate for Sangrur. Punjab is scheduled to hold elections on June 1st.

Recently, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh for violating the Model Code of Conduct by misusing government machinery and accommodation.

In a written complaint filed with the poll panel, the party’s chief spokesman Arshdeep Singh Kler said Mann and Sanjay Singh have violated the model code by misusing the CM's official residence and the Punjab government media platform to propagate the political agenda of their AAP.

He also said the action of AAP leaders, by using the CM’s residence to organise a political meeting of ministers to discuss the political strategy for the coming elections, is a total misuse of government machinery and other platforms with the sole purpose of propagating and advertising their political agenda at the cost of public exchequer of the state.