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Chadha, Harbhajan among AAP RS picks from Punjab
Five Rajya Sabha seats will fall vacant on April 9, and the elections are scheduled to be held on March 31
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party’s New Delhi legislator Raghav Chadha, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh and IIT Delhi professor Sandeep Pathak are among the AAP’s nominees for the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. The other two candidates are Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal and businessman Sanjeev Arora, the party announced on Monday.
Five Rajya Sabha seats will fall vacant on April 9, and the elections are scheduled to be held on March 31.
AAP won 92 of Punjab’s 117 assembly seats. After the Rajya Sabha elections, its strength in the Upper House is set to increase from three to eight as it is likely to grab all five seats.
Chadha, 33, an MLA in the Delhi assembly and a member of key party and House committees, is one of the party’s public faces. He will be the youngest Rajya Sabha member.
Chadha, who was closely involved in the election campaigns in Delhi and Punjab, also served as the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board.
“I will raise the issues of the people of Punjab. Bhagwant Mann is no longer an MP; he is now the chief minister of Punjab. I cannot speak like him (Mann), who is a gifted speaker,” Chadha told HT. “We will together try to ensure that the absence of Mann is not felt in Parliament.”
Chadha, who holds joint charge of the Punjab unit, may also continue to serve as a link between the Punjab government and the AAP leadership in Delhi during his six-year tenure in the RS.
Harbhajan Singh, 41, who was one of India’s most successful spin bowlers between 1998 and 2016 with 417 Test and 269 ODI wickets, will join a list of cricketers who served in the Upper House. Singh also captained the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, and led the side to the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 title.
“I will raise issues related to Punjab and sports in Parliament. My main motive is to promote sports in the country. We celebrate when we even win two medals in Olympics, but a country like India should win 200 medals. I will try to fulfil all the expectations of the people and the party,” he said.
An Arjuna and Padma Shri awardee, Singh has been working for the upliftment of disadvantaged children through the Smile Train Foundation and Tera Tera Foundation, the AAP said in a statement.
Sandeep Pathak, 42, has maintained a low profile so far but played a key role in the AAP poll strategy for Punjab. He is touted as a backroom strategist who helped conduct internal surveys in the state l, and aided in the selection of candidates.
Pathak, who is an associate professor of physics at IIT Delhi, received his PhD from Cambridge University in 2011.
The other two nominees are Sanjeev Arora (58), an exporter from Ludhiana, and Ashok K Mittal (58), founder-chancellor of the Lovely Professional University in Phagwara.
Arora runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust that was established after his parents lost their lives to cancer. “The trust has been serving the people of Punjab for over 15 years, and more than 160 cancer patients have been treated free of cost,” the AAP said in a statement.
Arora is the chairman and MD of Ritesh Properties and Industries Limited. Besides manufacture and export of garments, the firm is involved in real estate, housing, industrial and commercial sectors and has developed the Hampton Business Park and Hampton Homes on Ludhiana’s Chandigarh Road. He is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, and is a member of the apex council of Punjab Cricket Association.
Mittal is an educationist, social activist and philanthropist.
The Mittal family set up Lovely Professional University (LPU) in 2005—the first private university in the state. Established on a few acres of land, the university has now been expanded to 600 acres. Currently, there are more than 30,000 students from India and all over the world at the university. “Hailing from a humble background, Mittal worked his way up to become an accomplished automotive entrepreneur..,” the party said.
“Hailing from a humble background, Mittal worked his way up to become an accomplished automotive entrepreneur. As a way to serve the society and the state of Punjab, he founded LPU, which is one of the largest universities in India today, with students from over 50 countries,” the party said.
Professor Tanvir Aeijaz, Director (honorary), Centre for Multilevel Federalism, New Delhi and Associate Professor at Delhi University, said: “Rajya Sabha members represent a state, not constituencies, and are elected by the elected members of the legislative assembly of the State in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. In Punjab, the election to five upper house seats is heavily tilted in favour of AAP candidates due to having its 92 members in the assembly. In all likelihood, all five vacancies will go to the AAP.”
