E-Paper
AAP nominees Seechewal, Sahney elected unopposed to RS from Punjab
Returning officer-cum-secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Surinder Pal declared Seechewal and Sahney elected to the Upper House of the Parliament on the last day for withdrawal of candidature
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates Balbir Singh Seechewal and Vikramjit Singh Sahney were on Friday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.
Returning officer-cum-secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Surinder Pal declared Seechewal and Sahney elected to the Upper House of the Parliament on the last day for withdrawal of candidature. He also gave them the “certificates of election”. With their election, all seven Rajya Sabha members from Punjab will be from the AAP.
Renowned environmentalist Seechewal and social activist-entrepreneur Sahney were the only two candidates for the two Rajya Sabha berths from the state. As no other party had fielded a candidate, given the AAP’s overwhelming majority in the state assembly, their election was a formality.
Seechewal and Sahney later met speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, who congratulated them on their election. The two seats are falling vacant as the term of current members Ambika Soni and Balwinder Singh Bhunder will expire on July 4. Soni and Bhunder belong to the Congress and SAD, respectively.
Seechewal, the ‘Eco Baba’ who works for underprivileged
Known as ‘Eco Baba’, Seechewal was awarded the Padma Shri for rejuvenating the 160km tributary of the Sutlej and Beas rivers. He has built schools and colleges for the underprivileged in different places in Punjab. His work was also applauded by late President APJ Abdul Kalam, who visited his village, Seechewal, twice.
Sahney, an entrepreneur, educationist, social activist
Sahney is an entrepreneur, educationist, and philanthropist. He is the international president of the World Punjabi Organisation (WPO) that operates in 22 countries to foster social, economic, and cultural bonds. He is credited with evacuating over 500 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs by sending three chartered flights and rehabilitating them other than ensuring free education of their children.
All 7 RS members from Punjab to be from AAP
In March, the party had fielded former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, then Punjab affairs in-charge Raghav Chadha, IIT Delhi faculty Sandeep Pathak, Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal and industrialist Sanjeev Arora for five vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Punjab, and even they were elected unopposed.
