The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded former cricketer Harbhajan Singh as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Punjab, news agency ANI reported.
Apart from Singh, AAP has also nominated Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha; IIT Delhi professor Dr Sandeep Pathak; Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, Ashok Mittal; and Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Care Charitable Trust founder, Sanjiv Arora, as its candidate for the Upper House of Parliament.
All five filed their nominations for Rajya Sabha from Punjab on Monday. Chadha, 33, will be the youngest Rajya Sabha member.
Five Rajya Sabha seats in Punjab will fall vacant next month and 21 March is the last day to file nomination. The five Rajya Sabha MPs whose terms are coming to an end are- Congress leaders Partap Singh Bajwa and SS Dullo, BJP’s Shwait Malik, SAD’s Naresh Gujral and SS Dhindsa from SAD-Sanyukt.
Harbhajan, who has taken over 700 wickets in an international career spanning over 18 years, just before announcing his retirement, had gone to meet former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and the picture of the two on Twitter had led to speculations of him joining Congress.
However, he had categorically denied any inclination of joining the Congress party.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the recent Punjab Assembly elections by winning 92 of the 117 Assembly constituencies.
Further, AAP strength in the Rajya Sabha is expected to rise from 3 to 8 after the Rajya Sabha polls.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)