AAP's Punjab CM face to be announced on Tuesday: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said his party's chief ministerial candidate for the Punjab Assembly polls will be announced on Tuesday.

The AAP has received over 15 lakh responses under its campaign to elect its CM face for the Assembly polls, a party leader said.

Kejriwal had on January 13 asked the people of Punjab to suggest names of their preferred chief ministerial candidates and launched a mobile number for the purpose.

Kejriwal then said though he had wanted party's state unit chief Bhagwant Mann's name to be declared as the chief ministerial candidate, the Sangrur MP insisted that people should make the decision.

Kejriwal had also ruled himself out of the race.

"The name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for Punjab Assembly elections will be announced tomorrow at 12 noon," Kejriwal told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Delhi.

Later in the day, AAP leader Raghav Chadha in Chandigarh said, "We have so far received more than 15 lakh responses through SMS, voice calls, WhatsApp messages. AAP's IT team is scrutinising each message and tomorrow Kejriwal will disclose the results."

Chadha said it will be only AAP which will go to the state Assembly polls with the chief ministerial face.

He said none of the other political parties, including the ruling Congress, announced the name of their chief ministerial candidate.

Replying to a question, Chadha said the next list of candidates will be announced soon. So far, the party has announced 112 candidates.

Voting for Punjab's 117 Assembly seats is scheduled for February 20 and the counting will take place on March 10.

Accepting the demand of political parties, the Election Commission on Monday decided to hold the single-phase Assembly polls in Punjab on February 20 instead of February 14 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and political parties in the state had urged the poll panel to postpone the date of voting as lakhs of followers of Guru Ravidas travel to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate his birth anniversary on February 16.

Channi had said as members of the Scheduled Castes community are likely to visit Varanasi from February 10 to 16, they won't be able to vote in the elections.