'Sushil Gupta will help accomplish Mission Haryana'

NEW DELHI: Leaders of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party have said that businessman Sushil Gupta, one of its Rajya Sabha candidates, will help the party expand and accomplish its "Mission Haryana".

On Friday, AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai took up to Facebook Live to justify the party's decision of electing the two outsiders – Narain Dass Gupta and Sushil Gupta – as its candidates for Rajya Sabha seats, which triggered criticism from Opposition parties.

Rai dismissed allegations of buying the candidates and said that these are "tricks to put down the image of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal."

Rai said Sushil Gupta, a businessman and an ex-Congress politician, who runs charitable schools and hospitals in Delhi and Haryana, was picked due to "practical reasons" and ND Gupta for his expertise on the economy.

"We had formed the government in Delhi with a dream of eliminating corruption, establishing Swaraj. But the Centre is not letting us work. They are doing this as Delhi is not a full state. The party needs a full state for bringing about the changes it desires.

"We tried that in Punjab, but Congress and BJP did not let us. We feel we can form the government in Haryana and have chosen him (Sushil Gupta) keeping our 'Mission Haryana' in mind," Rai said.

Since the announcement of its Rajya Sabha candidates, AAP has been under attack from various political parties and people across India.

Founder member and senior party leader Kumar Vishvas also slammed the leadership, while the BJP and Congress have said that the party has lost its own principals of clean politics.

However, AAP hit back at Vishwas' allegations saying that he had tried to malign the party's image earlier.

Rai said that after the civic polls in April last year, "there were attempts to bring down the government and Vishwas was the principal mover and at the centre of those conspiracies"

"Most of the meetings in this regard involving a few MLAs were held at Vishwas' residence. Kapil Mishra was a part of it and later he was removed from the cabinet," Rai said.

This is the first time that AAP, which has 66 members in the 70-member Delhi Assembly including some dissidents, will elect members to the upper house.