In a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, three rebel leaders, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra and Chetan Singh Jouramajra, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi on Monday, November 2.

Their exit comes amid growing differences with the AAP leadership and a series of resignations within the party’s Punjab unit. While Pathanmajra and Jouramajra resigned from the party’s primary membership on Sunday, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh resigned as a Punjab MLA on Monday.

The developments follow AAP’s announcement of its first list of 40 candidates for the 2027 Assembly elections, raising questions about the political future of several sitting legislators.

Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, the MLA from Sanaur, and Chetan Singh Jouramajra, who represents Samana, resigned from the AAP on Sunday. Pathanmajra sent his resignation to the party's national convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, while Jouramajra announced his decision in a social media post.

Both leaders were reportedly unhappy with the party’s decisions regarding their constituencies. The AAP had appointed new constituency in-charges in Sanaur and Samana, fuelling speculation about changes in its candidate selection.

Meanwhile, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, MLA from Amritsar North and a former IPS officer, submitted his resignation to Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. He said his resignation would take effect from November 1, 2026.

The AAP had suspended Singh for five years in June 2025 over alleged anti-party activities. The action followed his criticism of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau's investigation into Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a disproportionate assets case.

Addressing the people of Amritsar, Singh thanked them for their support and said he would remain indebted to them “until my last breath".

He urged people to move beyond what he described as the “politics of lanes and ribbon-cutting" and work towards Punjab's development. He highlighted drugs, extortion, gangsterism and corruption as major challenges facing the state.

Singh claimed that he had achieved 90 per cent of the targets he had set as an MLA.

“In the Punjab Legislative Assembly, I always raised the voice of Amritsaris and boldly addressed issues from water and sewage to Circuit House, Company Bagh, dirty drains, Guru Nanak Dev University, Government Medical College, Saroop Rani College, and the Bargari sacrilege case," he said.

He also described ending the ‘mai-baap’ culture in politics and treating the public as his inspiration as his biggest achievement.

“Working together with you to formulate a forward strategy, I will aim to ensure clean politics and transparent administration. My sole purpose is ‘Punjab First’. Apart from this, I will have no personal interests," he said.

AAP's first list of 40 candidates includes Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri, Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan from Kotkapura and jailed minister Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana West. Other ministers named include Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Balkar Singh, Jai Krishan Singh Rouri, Kulwant Singh and Labh Singh Ugoke.

Pathanmajra, who was not included in the list, faces a rape case. He reportedly travelled to Australia after the case was registered and was arrested after returning to India. He also had differences with the party leadership over constituency-related issues.

Jouramajra, a former Cabinet minister, was dropped during a Cabinet reshuffle. His differences with the leadership reportedly grew after former SAD leader Surjit Singh Rakhra became the constituency in-charge of Samana.

In the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, AAP won 92 of the state's 117 seats, while the Congress secured 18.