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Will Arvind Kejriwal enter Rajya Sabha from Punjab? AAP's ‘big responsibility’ answer
The buzz about Arvind Kejriwal going to the Rajya Sabha intensified after AAP declared its sitting Rajya Sabha MP as a candidate for Ludhiana West bypoll.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has refuted speculation about party supremo Arvind Kejriwal becoming a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, news agency PTI reported.
The party said that the AAP national convenor has a “big responsibility” for the party's pan-India expansion, and he will not become a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab.
"Arvind Kejriwal will not go to the Rajya Sabha because he has the big responsibility of the party's expansion in the country and he is working on it," senior party leader Somnath Bharti told PTI.
The buzz about Arvind Kejriwal going to the Rajya Sabha intensified after AAP declared Sanjeev Arora, the sitting MP of Rajya Sabha from Punjab, as its candidate for the by-poll in the Ludhiana West Assembly seat.
Sanjeev Arora, a Ludhiana-based industrialist, has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2022. His name for the bypoll came as the Ludhiana West seat went vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi last month.
On Wednesday, AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar also denied rumours of Arvind Kejriwal becoming a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab.
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Kakkar said that Sanjeev Arora is the best candidate for the Ludhiana West seat and that is why he has been fielded from there.
She said the sources claiming Kejriwal will reach the Rajya Sabha from Punjab are completely wrong.
"As far as Arvind Kejriwal is concerned, earlier sources of media said he will become the chief minister of Punjab and now they are saying he will go to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. Both these media sources are absolutely wrong," Kakkar told PTI.
Kejriwal is the AAP's national convener, and he is not confined to one state, she said.
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Earlier today, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya had asked whether Sanjeev Arora's candidature was intended to “clear the path for Arvind Kejriwal, who just lost his own seat in New Delhi, to get nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab”.
“Wouldn't it be better if someone from Punjab represented the state instead of Kejriwal?” Amit Malviya asked in a post on X.
Kejriwal, the former three-term chief minister of Delhi, was defeated in the recent assembly polls from the New Delhi seat by BJP's Parvesh Verma.
