The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP on Wednesday announced the names of Sanjay Singh, Narayan Das Gupta and Sushil Gupta as the party’s nominees for the Rajya Sabha.
The announcement was made by Kejriwal’s close associate and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
“Sanjay Singh, ND Gupta and Sushil Gupta are the final names for the three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi, ” Sisodia said while addressing a press conference today.
While Sanjay Singh is a senior party leader, Sushil Gupta is a businessman and ND Gupta is a chartered accountant by profession.
The central leadership of Delhi’s ruling party, it appears, ignored party heavyweight and one of AAP’s founding members Kumar Vishwas in the process.
Miffed over not being included in the party’s final list, Kumar Vishwas is likely to address a press conference over the issue shortly.
There were several names in the contention within the AAP for the three seats for the Upper House of Parliament that goes to polls in the mid-January.
The election has also created a bitterness in the party.
Probably, this could be the reason why the party delayed the announcement of the candidates.
Senior party leader Kumar Vishwas, who has reportedly been at odds with the AAP central leadership for some time now, was considered to be one of the strongest contenders.
However, given his present equation with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the chances of the party sending him to the Upper House were slim.
Apart from him, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh were the other candidates for the Upper House.
However, the party this time decided to select candidates from the field of law, economics and social work.
The party had also reportedly approached former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan in October, but he declined the offer.
The move to not field any party leader to the Rajya Sabha is also seen as an attempt to put an end to the intra-party rivalry.
Delhi sends three members to the Rajya Sabha.
Currently, the city-state is being represented by Janardan Dwivedi, Parvez Hashmi, Karan Singh, whose terms end in January next year.
With its brute majority in the 67-member Delhi Legislative Assembly, it won’t be much difficult for the party to get its three members elected to the Upper House.
