Meet Hayer returns to his former Barnala constituency; Raj Kumar Chabbewal fielded from Phagwara while son Ishank is set to contest Chabbewal
Chandigarh, November 12, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has nominated two of its sitting Lok Sabha Members of Parliament, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and Dr. Raj Kumar Chabbewal, to contest the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
The names of both MPs figure in the party’s second list of 31 candidates announced on Thursday, taking the total number of candidates declared by AAP to 71.
Meet Hayer, who represents Sangrur in the Lok Sabha, has been fielded from Barnala, a constituency he represented twice in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha before his election to Parliament in 2024.
Dr. Raj Kumar Chabbewal, the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Hoshiarpur, has been nominated from the Phagwara (Reserved) Assembly constituency in Kapurthala district.
The nomination of the two sitting MPs is among the significant features of AAP’s second list, which was announced following a meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee in New Delhi.
Meet Hayer Returns to Barnala
Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Barnala in 2017 and again in 2022 on an AAP ticket.
Following AAP’s victory in the 2022 Assembly elections, he was inducted into Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s Cabinet and held several important portfolios during his ministerial tenure.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, AAP fielded him from Sangrur, where he emerged victorious and subsequently resigned from the Punjab Assembly.
His resignation necessitated a byelection in Barnala in November 2024.
However, AAP lost the seat to Congress candidate Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon, who defeated AAP nominee Harinder Singh Dhaliwal by 2,157 votes.
The result was a setback for AAP, which had held Barnala since 2017.
With Meet Hayer’s nomination for the 2027 Assembly elections, AAP has decided to field its sitting Sangrur MP from his former constituency in an attempt to regain the seat from the Congress.
Raj Kumar Chabbewal Fielded from Phagwara
Dr. Raj Kumar Chabbewal, who currently represents the Hoshiarpur (Reserved) parliamentary constituency, has been nominated from Phagwara (Reserved).
A former Congress leader, Chabbewal was elected to the Punjab Assembly from the Chabbewal (Reserved) constituency in 2017 and 2022.
He had also served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha during his association with the Congress.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he resigned from the Congress and joined AAP.
The party subsequently nominated him from Hoshiarpur, where he won the parliamentary election.
His election to the Lok Sabha resulted in the Chabbewal Assembly seat falling vacant.
AAP then fielded his son, Dr. Ishank Kumar Chabbewal, in the November 2024 Assembly byelection.
Ishank won the seat, defeating Congress candidate Ranjit Kumar by a margin of 28,690 votes.
Father and Son to Contest on AAP Tickets
An interesting aspect of AAP’s preparations for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections is the nomination of Dr. Raj Kumar Chabbewal from Phagwara while his son, sitting MLA Dr. Ishank Chabbewal, has been named by the party to contest from Chabbewal.
The development means that both father and son are set to contest the same Assembly election on AAP tickets, though from different constituencies.
Raj Kumar Chabbewal has already been serving as the party’s Halqa Incharge for Phagwara, where he will now be its official candidate.
The father-son nominations also draw attention to AAP’s candidate-selection approach, as the party has generally projected itself as opposed to family-based political patronage.
However, the party has not announced any special policy or explanation concerning the nomination of the two family members.
Two Sitting MPs in Assembly Contest
With Meet Hayer and Raj Kumar Chabbewal entering the Assembly contest, AAP has nominated two sitting Lok Sabha MPs for the 2027 Punjab elections.
Both had earlier served as MLAs before being elected to Parliament in 2024.
Their nominations will bring them back into Assembly-level electoral contests in constituencies with which they have existing political associations.
If either is elected to the Punjab Assembly, the question of retaining the parliamentary or Assembly seat would have to be resolved in accordance with the applicable legal provisions governing simultaneous membership of Parliament and a State Legislature.
AAP had announced its first list of 40 candidates on October 31. With the second list of 31 candidates released on November 12, the party has now named its candidates for 71 of Punjab’s 117 Assembly constituencies.
FOLLOW NOW
