The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is due to pick its candidates for the January 16 Rajya Sabha elections, with consensus reportedly building around the names of Sanjay Singh, CND Gupta and Sushil Gupta for the biennial polls.
Singh, a prominent AAP leader, was in charge of the party’s crucial campaign in Punjablast year. CND Gupta, a chartered accountant, is the AAP’s main advisor on economic issues. Sushil Gupta, who was earlier with the Congress, is held in high esteem by AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his work as a social activist.
The AAP had earlier reportedly approached former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy for their possible candidature. But none of these discussions came to fruition with the AAP apparently going along with party members and trusted campaigners as its candidates to the Upper House.
The AAP has a brute majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. The term of three sitting MPs from Delhi — Karan Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Parvej Hashmi, all from the Congress — comes to an end on January 27. Elections have already been notified and the last date of filing nominations is January 5.
AAP’s two top leaders — Kejriwal and his close confidant and Cabinet colleague Manish Sisodia — have not been in Delhi. They were supposed to have returned on Tuesday evening. AAP has reportedly scheduled a meeting of its legislators on Wednesday, when the candidates’ names will be discussed and finalised.