NEW DELHI: Amid speculation around who would be its chief ministerial candidate in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced deputy chief minister for the state would be a Dalit Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal made the announcement at a rally organised at Phillaur, a reserved constituency in Jalandhar that has a sizeable Dalit population while releasing the party’s Dalit Manifesto on Friday.While the party does not have a prominent Dalit face yet, former Bahujan Samaj Party leaders Mohan Singh Phallianwala, who will contest from Firozepur, and Parkash Singh Jandali from Ludhiana are a few emerging names. Mohan Singh Phalianwala (60) is a prominent Dalit name on the list. The two-time MP was state president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for almost 15 years. Jandali was recently expelled from the BSP as party chief.According to Gurdev Singh Dev (Dev Mann), the president of AAP’s SC/ST wing and a contesting candidate from Nabha, a reserved SC/ST seat, the final decision will be taken by the party ‘high command’ which comprises Kejriwal, senior party leaders Sanjay Singh and Jarnail Singh and the party’s organisational builder Durgesh Pathak.Mann added that the party has been working at the ground level with the Dalits and sees this announcement as a positive move in fortifying AAP’s chances of winning the Assembly polls, due early next year. “We came up with a manifesto after deliberating over issues taken up during our Dalit Dialogue sessions at the grass root level. Such an announcement is a first made in the history of Punjab’s electoral history as it acknowledges the presence of Dalits as an important entity,” he said.Dalits constitute nearly 31% of the total population in Punjab, one of the highest in the country. With the Dalit vote spread across 34 reserved assembly seats in the state and a tight contest at hand, all three major parties — the SAD, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi party— have been trying to woo this chunk of the electorate. While the Congress had roped in Sufi Singer Hans Raj Hans at the behest of Captain Amarinder Singh, SAD has fielded former BSP leader Baldev Singh Khaira from Phillaur and prominent Dalit face Seth Satpal Mal from Kartarpur.However, according to Pramod Kumar, Director of the Institute for Development and Communication in Chandigarh, that recently conducted a ground prepoll survey in the state, Dalits in Punjab do not vote as a homogenous group in the state. “The population comprises of SC/ST’s Valmikis, Rai Sikhs and also Dera followers who vote differently. The population is fragmented, So I don’t see the point of a Dalit manifesto,” he said.AAP’s Dalit manifesto promises constituting a Special Investigation Team to inquire into cases of atrocities against Dalits in the past five years.