Punjab's AAP CM candidate will be from the Sikh community: Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister, revealed a little about his political goals in Punjab on Monday, saying that the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) chief ministerial nominee in the state's next assembly elections will be a local from the Sikh community.

"It would be someone of whom entire Punjab can be proud," Kejriwal stated at a press conference in Amritsar.

Former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh joined the AAP in Amritsar on Monday in the presence of Kejriwal, giving the party a boost ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections next year.

After the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed a report prepared by the earlier Punjab Police SIT into the Kotkapura firing incident in 2015 following the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot district, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh announced early retirement in April.

He was a member of the Special Investigation Team that looked into the policing shootings in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015. The state administration was then ordered by the court to form a fresh SIT sans Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh.

After capturing 77 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress earned an absolute majority in the state, deposing the SAD-BJP administration after ten years in power. The Aam Aadmi Party came in second with 20 seats in the 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) received only 15 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received three.