Punjab: Industrialist Rajinder Gupta elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha

Gupta’s wife, Madhu, was the only other candidate left after the scrutiny of nomination papers, and she withdrew her candidature, according to officials

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate and industrialist Rajinder Gupta was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on Thursday.

After receiving the certificate, Gupta said he was grateful to the party and the people of Punjab (HT Photo)

Returning officer Ram Lok Khatana, who is also secretary of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, declared Gupta elected to the upper house of Parliament on the last date for the withdrawal of nominations. Gupta’s wife, Madhu, was the only other candidate left after the scrutiny of nomination papers, and she withdrew her candidature, according to officials.

After receiving the certificate, Gupta said he was grateful to the party and the people of Punjab. “I have been given this responsibility. I’ll start fulfilling it. Whatever the party decides, whatever the people’s expectations are, I’ll try to live up to them,” he said.

The byelection was necessitated after the resignation of businessman-turned-politician Sanjeev Arora on July 1. Arora, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2022, stepped down after being elected to the state legislative assembly from the Ludhiana West constituency in a bypoll.

Khatana later handed over the certificate of election to Gupta in the presence of Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. Gupta was accompanied by his wife. His Rajya Sabha term will be until April 9, 2028.

The AAP had named Gupta, chairman emeritus of the Trident Group, as its candidate two weeks ago after he resigned as vice-chairman of the state economic policy and planning board – a post he had held since 2022 – and as chairperson of the Sri Kali Devi Temple Advisory Committee. With the AAP having an overwhelming majority of 93 members in the 117-strong state assembly, his election was a foregone conclusion.

However, the nomination process was not without drama. Another aspirant, Navneet Chaturvedi, who claims to be the president of Janata Party (India), filed his nomination papers as an Independent for the October 24 byelection. The nomination papers carried the names and signatures of 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers. During scrutiny on Tuesday, Chaturvedi’s papers were rejected as several MLAs alleged that their signatures had been ‘forged.’ The MLAs filed police complaints, and Chaturvedi, who denied the allegations, was arrested by the Ropar police from Chandigarh on Wednesday after a 28-hour standoff with the UT police.

Punjab sends seven members to the Rajya Sabha. With Gupta’s election, all seven members are now from the AAP. Sandeep Pathak, Raghav Chadha, Balbir Singh Seechewal, Harbhajan Singh, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, and Ashok Kumar Mittal are the other Rajya Sabha members.