CHANDIGARH: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party suffered a political setback on Sunday when two of its sitting Punjab MLAs—Chetan Singh Jouramajra from Samana and Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra from Sanour—resigned from the party’s primary membership.
The resignations came a day after AAP announced its first list of 40 candidates for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections. Neither Samana nor Sanour was included in the first list.
Pathanmajra reportedly sent his resignation to AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. Jouramajra announced his decision through social media and confirmed that he had left the party.
“I have resigned. I don’t have my heart in the party. The situation in Punjab is heartbreaking. We will talk later,” Jouramajra said while confirming his resignation.
Their departure had been anticipated after AAP appointed new constituency in-charges in their respective Assembly segments. Ranjod Hadana was given responsibility for Sanour, while former Shiromani Akali Dal leader Surjit Singh Rakhra was appointed in-charge of Samana.
The appointments were widely interpreted as an indication that the two sitting MLAs might not be renominated for the forthcoming elections.
Jouramajra had served as a minister in the Bhagwant Mann government but was subsequently dropped from the Cabinet. He was reportedly unhappy after Rakhra was inducted into AAP and assigned responsibility for his constituency.
Pathanmajra’s relations with the party leadership had also remained strained. He had publicly questioned the functioning of his own government, including its handling of floods. He was also named in a rape case following a complaint by a Zirakpur woman. The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him regular bail in that case in May. The allegations remain subject to adjudication.
Reports suggest that both legislators may join the Bharatiya Janata Party, although neither had formally announced his next political move at the time of filing this report.
AAP had on Saturday renominated 40 sitting legislators in its first candidates’ list, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri and Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura.
The twin resignations indicate that the early distribution of tickets and appointment of alternative constituency in-charges could trigger further dissent within the ruling party. Decisions are still awaited for 77 of Punjab’s 117 Assembly constituencies.
It was not immediately clear whether Jouramajra and Pathanmajra had also submitted their resignations as members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly to the Speaker. Their departure from AAP’s primary membership alone does not automatically terminate their Assembly membership.