All Five AAP Candidates From Punjab Elected Unopposed To Rajya Sabha

Term of five RS members from Punjab - Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), Naresh Gujral (SAD), Partap Singh Bajwa (Congress), Shamsher Singh Dullo (Congress) and Shwait Malik (BJP) - will expire on April 9

New Delhi: All five Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominees for the Rajya Sabha elections have been elected unopposed from Punjab, officials said on Thursday.

The party had nominated former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, AAP leader Raghav Chadha, Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal, IIT Delhi professor Sandeep Pathak and industrialist Sanjeev Arora for the polls scheduled on March 31 and Thursday was the last day for the withdrawal of candidature.

According to Returning Officer Surinder Pal, all the five candidates have been elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha.

“A total of 5 nominations were filed - all of them were from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Today was the last date for withdrawal of nominations, no withdrawals were made. So, all the five have been declared winners unopposed (to Rajya Sabha),” news agency ANI quoted Pal as saying.

Notably, the term of the five Rajya Sabha members from Punjab -- Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), Naresh Gujral (SAD), Partap Singh Bajwa (Congress), Shamsher Singh Dullo (Congress) and Shwait Malik (BJP) – are about to expire on April 9.

Among the AAP nominees, Harbhajan Singh is a former spinner of the Indian cricket team hailing from Jalandhar. He had also captained Mumbai Indians and Kings Xl Punjab in the Indian Premier League.

Raghav Chadha is the party’s co-incharge of Punjab affairs and considered by AAP as one of the architects of its victory in the state assembly elections.

Ashok Mittal is the founder of Phagwara-based Lovely Professional University (LPU), the first private university in Punjab and one of the largest in India.

Sanjeev Arora, a businessman from Ludhiana, runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust founded after his parents lost their lives to cancer. The trust has treated more than 160 cancer patients free of cost.

Arora is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana and is a member of the apex council of the Punjab Cricket Association.

Sandeep Pathak, an associate professor at IIT Delhi, was also instrumental in strategising the party’s victory in the assembly polls. He did his Ph.D from Cambridge University of UK.