The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominated Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and ND Gupta to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi, elections for which will take place on 16 January. The AAP currently has 67 members in the 70-member Assembly.
Meet AAP’s Rajya Sabha Nominees
- Sanjay Singh is the party’s national spokesperson and was in-charge of the Punjab Assembly polls in 2017. He has been with the party since its inception.
- Sushil Gupta has been the chairman of Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh Club for the last 25 years and is technically not a member of the AAP, CNN-News18 reports.
- ND Gupta, a chartered accountant, has authored accounting and business books.
Ahead of the announcement on Wednesday, 3 January, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met MLAs of the party and then with the Political Action Committee (PAC).
A group of AAP leaders has emphasised on sending to the Rajya Sabha people from the fields of economics, law, and social work, while another favoured nominating senior party leaders, leading to a rift in the party.
Kumar Vishwas Hits Out at Kejriwal
Shortly after the Rajya Sabha candidates were announced, Kumar Vishwas lashed out at Arvind Kejriwal. He told ANI:
“Kejriwal is like a dictator. Only his words matter in the party.” Earlier, reports had speculated that Vishwas’ name could feature in the list of nominees for Rajya Sabha.
Arvind ne mujhe muskurate huye kaha tha ke ‘sir ji aapko marenge par shaheed nahi hone denge’ main unko badhai deta hu ke main apni shahadat sweekar karta hu. (Arvind had once said that I will be killed but not martyred. Today, I accept the martyrdom.)
“I request Arvind Kejriwal to tell your Twitter warrior to leave me alone as there are some rules even in war. When you kill your enemy, you don’t tinker with the dead body,” he added.
Earlier, the AAP had approached former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan but he declined the offer. There were reports that the party talked to former Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, who turned down the offer.
The name of Kejriwal’s close confidant Ashutosh also briefly did the rounds.
(The story has been updated.)
(With inputs from PTI.)
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