Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday named Sanjay Singh, Narayan Das Gupta and Sushil Gupta as its candidates fo... Read More

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday named a prominent chartered accountant and former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India N D Gupta, businessman and social activist Sushil Gupta and party functionary Sanjay Singh as three nominees for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled on January 16.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia announced the names after a meeting of the party's political affairs committee at CM Arvind Kejriwal residence.

The name of founder member Kumar Vishwas, who has been fancying his chances for a long time, was not even considered. Vishwas took a dig at the APP leadership after his name was not included in the list of three Rajya Sabha candidates. "I was punished for speaking the truth. I accept my martyrdom," he told reporters.

A billionaire who works in education and health sectors, Sushil Gupta claims he is an agriculturist and social activist. In 2013 he contested assembly polls on Congress ticket from Moti Nagar seat and recently resigned from Congress. According to the 2013 affidavit submitted to the election commission, Sushil Gupta’s total assets were valued at Rs 164 crore. He is also considered close to some of the key AAP functionaries.

ND Gupta is considered a foremost expert on GST and has authored several books on accountancy and business. He is likely to be a shot in the arm for AAP which has been attacking BJP led centre over the implementation of GST.

For many AAP functionaries fancying their chances to enter the upper house of the parliament during a churning which lasted over a week, two of the three names are surprising. It is however pertinent to point that MLAs did not "disagree" with party's choices in a meeting Kejriwal held with them.

Manish Sisodia at a press conference said the party was planning to send three people from among 18 prominent personalities who are well known in the fields of judiciary, law, economy, academics and other fields but all of them refused to accept the offer due to different reasons.

The party also explored the possibility of picking three persons from among party functionaries but consensus could not be reached on anybody's name other than Sanjay Singh.

A source said that party brass decided to send outsiders because otherwise there would have been a possibility of rebellion. But the fears of rebellion still exist within the party.

The MLAs who participated in the meeting at CM residence did not make any comments in the media. "We accept the choices of the party," a couple of MLAs told TOI after the meeting was over.

AAP is set to win all the three RS seats currently represented by Congress since it has an overwhelming majority in the 70 member assembly.



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