AAP picks Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta, ND Gupta as RS nominees

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday nominated senior party leader Sanjay Singh, chartered accountant and former president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Narain Dass Gupta and Delhi-based businessman, Sushil Gupta for the Rajya Sabha.

The decision was announced following the AAP's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence in New Delhi, which was attended by 56 party MLAs.

"We started with 18 names, from outside and within the party to represent the party in Rajya Sabha. Finally, votes were cast on eight of them," said Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. He said eight of the nine PAC members who attended the meeting agreed on all three names while one member agreed on two. He added that the nominees were finalised considering the work they have done in their respective fields.

"Sushil Gupta has made big contributions in the education and health sectors in Delhi and Haryana. He provides free education to 15,000 children. Narayan Das Gupta is the former president of the ICAI(Institute of Chartered Accountant of India)," Sisodia said. He explained that Sanjay Singh was nominated for his "grassroots" work as a leader in Uttar Pradesh, Narain Dass Gupta for his contributions in the field of economics and government policies.

The AAP also considered ten of its own leaders such as Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan, Atishi Marlena, Raghav Chadha, Pankaj Gupta, Prithvi Reddy, Ashish Talwar, Dilip Pandey, Deepak Bajpai and Sanjay Singh. Prominent names such as former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and former Chief Justice of India TS Thakur had turned down AAP's offer when the party approached them.