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Delhi

Senior scribe Arun Shourie likely to be nominated to Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Speculation ir rife that senior journalist Arun Shourie would likely be one of the Rajya Sabha candidates to be nominated by Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party.
The party is likely to send two non-political faces and one from AAP to the Upper House of Parliament.
Among the list of leaders within the party are names such as Sanjay Singh, Ashish Khaitan and Ashutosh.
However, AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj on Sunday said, "The name of Arun Shourie is just a speculation and we have not confirmed any name in this matter. We will announce all the three names together in the next week."
Shourie, a winner of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, has served in the Upper House twice in the past – once from 1998-2004 and then again in 2004-2010.
During his first stint, he held the charge of two very crucial ministries in the Cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
However, Shourie has, in recent times, become very critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government's economic policies.
Elections to three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi would be held on January 16, the Election Commission of India had said on Friday.
The terms of the incumbent members —Dr Karan Singh, Janardhan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi, all representing the Congress — will end on January 27.
The ruling AAP, which holds a 66-seat majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, is all set to win all three seats, when legislators elect the lawmakers in the states they represent.
The party, sources earlier had said, has decided to nominate 'outsider ground-level workers', who have done some concrete work in their respective fields.
Speculation regarding Shourie's nomination came after a faction of the party leaders wanted to bring credible journalists to the forefront.
Shourie is one of those journalists who has a credible image and is well known for his parliamentary knowledge, which could be helpful for the AAP to raise various issues in the Parliament.
The reason for such a move by the party is said to focus on issues such as Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Demonetisation and to counter "BJP's brand of economics".
For other faces, the party is also looking for grassroots workers. The party has changed its outlook towards the Opposition and is looking at the "grassroots-level workers".
"We are looking at ground level activists and workers who have impacted and brought real change to the downtrodden," a party source said.
The lookout for the party's representative to the Rajya Sabha seats comes when there are multiple senior leaders who could potentially be nominated.
However, a senior party leader said, "The problem with nominating one and not the other can lead to more tension within the party."
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