With the assembly elections in the corner, all the political parties have started their campaigns and started announcing their candidates. With Aam Aadmi Party in the lead, which had released the lists of candidates almost a month ago, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday released its first list of 69 candidates.
What unusual Shiromani Akali Dal had tried in its first list of candidates?
The list included the names of 17 first-time candidates and all state Cabinet ministers, besides those of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The party shared the list of their candidates on the twitter and said that it had given the priority to the more of young faces in its first list of candidates.
Here is the tweet by Punjab Vice Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal providing the list of candidates:
Shiromani Akali Dal announces first list of 69 candidates for Punjab assembly elections to be held in early 2017. pic.twitter.com/GUWaRy5izk
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) November 16, 2016
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which is in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), will contest 94 of the total 117 seats during the Assembly polls. The Aam Aadmi Party has already announced the names of its 79 candidates for the elections.
According to the reports from Hindustan Times, the SAD is planning something different this time to beat the anti-incumbency factor in the elections. And in such a move to tackle potential anti-incumbency, the SAD has fielded existing legislators from seats different from the ones from which they were elected in the 2012 polls.
The sons of at least four senior party leaders will also be contesting the elections. Party president Sukhbir Singh Badal said they had tried to give representation to “every section”, adding that the second list of candidates will be released soon.
However, the fact of the matter is that there is a strong anti-incumbency against the Badals in Punjab and SAD has to try something unusual to emerge victorious fro the third consecutive time in the state.
