The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominated Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and ND Gupta to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi, elections for which would be held on 16 January. The AAP currently has 67 members in the 70-member Assembly.
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).
While Singh has been associated with the party since its inception, Sushil Gupta is a Delhi-based businessman and ND Gupta is a chartered accountant.
The decision was taken at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in a meeting attended by around 56 party MLAs.
The party’s highest decision making body, the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), met soon after and formally approved the decision.
Soon after the Aam Aadmi Party announced its Rajya Sabha nominees, disgruntled AAP leader Kumar Vishwas attacked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying that he has been punished for speaking the truth.
Vishwas, who was angling for an RS seat, said that it is difficult to survive in the Aam Aadmi Party if one disagrees with Kejriwal.
The AAP leader also charged that around one and half years ago Kejriwal had in a party's national executive meeting said with a smile, "We will finish you, but we will not let you be a martyr.”
I request Arvind Kejriwal, that there are some rules even in war. When you kill your enemy, you don’t tinker with the dead body. I know nothing happens in the party without your approval. It is difficult to stay alive in the party if one disagrees with you. I am part of the party and therefore appeal to you to tell the party’s Twitter warriors and others that I have accepted that you have ‘martyred’ me. But don’t touch this ‘dead body’.Kumar Vishwas, Leader, AAP
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari also hit out at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that the AAP has "betrayed" the people by nominating "two businessmen" for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Tiwari said the announcement of the AAP's Rajya Sabha candidates belied its anti-corruption plank based on which it stormed to power in Delhi.
Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said that Gupta came to him to tender his resignation and told him beforehand that he was promised a Rajya Sabha berth by the AAP.
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